Following the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) was one of the first ensembles to provide streamed concerts at a time when all performance venues had been closed. Its Live from Orchestra Hall video archive provided a wealth of online concert experiences. That resource also provided the opportunity to observe Jader Bignamini, due to become Music Director by launching the 2020–2021 season, through an archived video of his DSO concert on October 18, 2019.
This past October Bignamini finally launched his first full season in Detroit, and the performance in Orchestra Hall was also live-streamed. Last night, in the context of the latest phase of COVID outbreaks, Bignamini and the DSO decided to launch the new year with another live-streamed performance. The soloist for this overture-concerto-symphony program was cellist Joshua Roman performing Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 104 concerto in B minor. This concerto was flanked on either side by familiar repertoire. The overture was the one that Gioachino Rossini composed for his William Tell opera, and the “symphony” selection was Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s extended suite, Pictures at an Exhibition.
Roman is familiar to San Francisco concert-goers. He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in February of 2010 with Herbert Blomstedt conducting Joseph Haydn's 1765 cello concerto in C major, Hoboken VIIb/1. San Francisco Performances then presented his recital debut through its Young Masters Series in January of 2012. This past July Roman returned to Davies for the first round of post-lockdown concerts performed before an audience in Davies Symphony Hall. With Colombian conductor Lina González-Grandos making her debut on the SFS podium, Roman performed Robert Schumann’s Opus 129 cello concerto in A minor.
Joshua Roman performing with DSO (screen shot from the performance being discussed)
The Dvořák concerto has played a major role in Roman’s repertoire. He performed it with SFS in October of 2017 under the baton of visiting conductor Krzysztof Urbański. However, this seems to be a case in which familiarity breeds intimacy, rather than contempt. Thus, there was as much freshness to his engagement with DSO last night as there had been when he played with SFS. Furthermore, through the camera work of the video crew, one could appreciate how Bignamini established connection with (seemingly) every member of the ensemble.
Indeed, the breadth of Bignamini’s connection to his ensemble was evident throughout the entire program and frequently clarified by video accounts of both his “signals” and their “recipients.” As a result there was a refreshing immediacy in his account of Rossini’s all-too-familiar overture. The camera work allowed one to appreciate the richness of the cello choir that begins the overture, an ingenious approach to instrumentation that is frequently overlooked. Similarly, there was an intimacy in the exchange in which the flute echoes the phrases introduced by the English horn. The finale, of course, was the usual wild ride; but Bignamini never let that outpouring of energy run off the rails.
Similarly, the video work for Pictures provided an opportunity to appreciate just how inventive Ravel’s approach to orchestration had been. Indeed, the breadth of instrumental resources allowed the viewer to become acquainted with more of the DSO musicians than would have been encountered from the distance of the seats in the concert hall. (There was also an “intermission feature” about how different sections of the ensemble were elevated to different heights to improve audience view.) Thus, as had been the case with the Rossini overture, video avoided any sense of tired familiarity by providing intimate glances of the individuals responsible for the rich outpouring of sonorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment