Last night saw the final live-stream of the season in the Live from Orchestra Hall series presented by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Music Director Jader Bignamini led the ensemble in a program entitled Mozart & the Seasons. This was an overture-concerto-symphony program in which the concluding symphony was by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 551 (his 41st symphony) in C major. It carries the nickname “Jupiter Symphony” is attributed to the impresario Johann Peter Salomon (probably best known for his arranging Joseph Haydn’s visit to England).
The first half of the program presented two “responses” to the “call” of the four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi collected under the title The Four Seasons. The title of the “overture” was “More Seasons,” composed by Michael Abels. This amounted to a spritely reflection on Vivaldi’s themes, which the advance work for this concert described as “Vivaldi in a Mixmaster.”
This was followed by Estaciones Porteñas, which is better known for its free translation into English as The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. This began as a collection of four tangos, which Ástor Piazzolla composed for his quintet consisting of violin (alternating with viola), piano, electric guitar, bass, and bandoneon. The first was composed in 1965, originally as incidental music for a play; and the other three were first performed in 1969.
DSO Concertmaster Robyn Bollinger (from her DSO Web page)
Between 1996 and 1998 the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged these pieces for solo violin and string orchestra, and that is the version that Bignamini conducted. The soloist was DSO Concertmaster Robyn Bollinger. Over the course of the four movements, there were also extended solos for the first-desk cello. Desyatnikov provided a generous number of hoops through which the violinist was required to leap, and Bollinger brought an energetic grace to each of them. Most importantly, however, both she and Bignamini clearly appreciated the generous supply of wit brought to this music, a supply that probably could be divided equally between Piazzolla and Desyatnikov!
Those high spirits then spilled over to the second half of the program. Bignamini’s account of Mozart’s score honored all of the repeats, but there was never any sense that the experience was going on for too long. He knew how to give each thematic gesture the necessary attention, while managing the overall architecture of both the individual movements and the journey they established. My guess is that this music was familiar to just about everyone listening, whether in the concert hall or in front of a television screen. Nevertheless, there was a freshness to the rhetoric that probably kept much of the audience on the edge of their respective seats.
Those of us sitting at our televisions are probably now wondering what Live from Orchestra Hall will have to offer next season!
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