SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Ravel and Mendelssohn : Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano, Erin Morley, soprano, Sasha Cooke, mezzo soprano, Sir Thomas Allen, narrator, the Girls of Anima (Emily Ellsworth, artistic director), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conductor Bernard Haitink, Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago 6.11.2009 (JLZ).

Ravel: Alborado del gracioso, Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (in one movement)

Mendelssohn: Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opp. 21 and 61.

Bernard Haitink’s return to Chicago for the 2009-2010 season began with this concert of music by Ravel and Mendelssohn. The first part of the program was devoted to Ravel, and began with a masterful performance of the familiar Alborado del gracioso. Haitink brought crisp tempos to a piece which shows off many orchestral colors to evoke an impression of Spanish settings. In fact, he helped to define the colors carefully by accentuating dynamic levels without ever exaggerating them. The woodwind-string blends benefited from the quieter dynamics, while the fortes and fortissimos added extra dimensions to the other sonorities in the score. The bassoon solo was eloquent in David McGill’s reading and its lyricism provided a fine contrast to the sometimes more sharply accented rhythms of the sections surrounding it.

This work set the stage for an exceptional performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as the soloist. Together Haitink and Thibaudet achieved a compelling intensity: the balance within the orchestra was well-judged from the start, and Thibaudet’s opening gesture matched the orchestral sound nicely. He continued with the all of the deftness for which he is famous, exactly as he did when he performed Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with the CSO last spring, Thibaudet captured the style of the Ravel from the start: precise where he needed to be, he was equally lyrical when the music required it and all of the jazzy elements were present without any sense of caricature intruding. The middle section conveyed a sense of timelessness before leading into the finale for which Haitink’s pacing was exactly right allowing Thibaudet to express every nuance.

The second half of the program was devoted to a performance of all of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both the Overture, Op. 21, which he composed in his youth, and the incidental music which the was written years later. Haitink took the Overture at a brisk pace, allowing the important themes to emerge clearly and without affectation. The briskness continued throughout the piece, through the end of the development section, after which Haitink let the tempo wind down. The recapitulation then returned to exactly the opening tempo.

The incidental music for the play was framed by the narrative found in the Ara Guzelimian edition which makes use of both Shakespeare’s text and also summarises the action in the play. Sir Thomas Allen gave the text a fine reading, which recalled the play vividly. Sir Thomas particularly is adept in this non-singing role (mentioned in Mark Berry’s recent interview with him. Ed) and delivered it with the same vitality he gave to the role of Doctor Pangloss in a recent semi-staged version of Leonard Berstein’s Candide at Alice Tully Hall. He played each character with completely appropriate style, especially the ‘ assonances’ in Bottom’s text which were particularly memorable.

The two choruses were nicely sung by the Girls of Anima, the ensemble formerly known as the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir. Their excellent diction and choral sound of this ensemble gave fine characterization to Mendelssohn and Shakespeare’s ranks of fairies. The solos were sung by Erin Morley (sop) and Sasha Cooke ( mezzo) . Morley has a lighter voice than Cooke’s of course and was the more effective in the Finale (“Through this house”). Cooke’s voice was also engaging, but seemed rather fuller than the style of “You spotted snakes” requires. Even so, these solo passages are relatively short, and it would be good to hear each of these fine young singers in more extended pieces.

Some of the longer numbers in the incidental music are familiar to most audiences, because of the Scherzo, the Nocturne, and, of course, the Wedding March. For the most part, the ensemble was quite effective, with some fine playing in the strings and woodwinds. The trumpets were exemplary in the Wedding March, but in other numbers the horns were sometimes uncharacteristically blurred.  Tuba player Gene Pokorny made a fine effort to show off the lighter textures of his instrument although even his deft playing demonstrated the challenges that occur when modern orchestras use a tuba to substitute for the ophicleide in the Overture.  All in all, though, the CSO played to wonderful effect in this rare concert performance of this complete version of Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The audience responded enthusiastically, not only to the program itself, but also to the return of principal conductor Bernard Haitink, whose leadership has been a most welcome contribution to recent seasons.

James L Zychowicz