Canellakis Links Dvořák, Prokofiev, and Sibelius

I look forward to Karina Canellakis’ visits to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony because she always seems to find imaginative approaches to preparing her programs. Her last visit in April of last year offered a coupling of Richard Strauss with Maurice Ravel, not the sort of “balancing act” one tends to expect! This week the second half of her program consisted entirely of Jean Sibelius’ Opus 22, a composition of four “Legends,” each based on one of the epic poems collected in the Kalevala, a collection of tales from Finnish, Karelian and Ingrian folklore and mythology. The first half began with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 66, given the title “Scherzo capriccioso.” This “overture” was followed by the concerto selection, Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 26 (third) piano concerto in C major with Alexandre Kantorow as soloist.

Conductor Serge Koussevitzky, during his tenure as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (from Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions)

Opus 26 tends to be the most affable of the five Prokofiev piano concertos, which is not to say it shies away from bold strokes. It was completed after his move to the United States and was championed by Serge Koussevitzky, then conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There are no end of technical demands on the soloist, and Kantorow rose to the challenges of all of them. Prokofiev was clearly as interested in the diversity of instrumental sonorities as he was in the technical keyboard challenges, and Canellakis could not have done a better job in giving all of those sonorities their due. Having established the full scope of his technical capabilities, Kantorow then selected, as his encore, Franz Liszt’s transcription of “Isoldes Liebestod,” the final scene of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. This probably went down well with those (like myself) that had enjoyed the performance of Parsifal at the San Francisco Opera!

For those acquainted with Dvořák’s music, Opus 66 was probably familiar. Canellakis gave it a vigorous account, giving the evening an energetic start. This was an excellent example of the composer’s capacity for instrumentation at its richest. Canellakis knew how to balance the full breadth of those sonorities every step of the way. Unless I am mistaken, this was my first contact with the music in a concert setting; and there was much more to hear than could be delivered by any recording!

The second half of the program was devoted to Jean Sibelius’ Opus 22 Lemminkäinen Suite, known more accurately as Four Legends from the Kalevala. Lemminkäinen is the heroic character of the Kalevala, a collection of Finnish folklore, myths, and epic poetry. The most familiar of the “legends” is the second movement, “The Swan of Tuonela.” This piece is the envy of English horn players, and Russ de Luna could not have given it a better account, even if the mythic context is a somewhat morbid one. Sadly, this is the only one of the four movements that says its piece in just the right duration of time. The others tend to overstay their welcome. Whether or not this is also the case for the texts that inspired the music will be left as an exercise for the reader!