SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Brahms and Beethoven: Northwest Sinfonietta, Christophe Chagnard (conductor), Marié Rossano (violin), Julian Schwarz (cello), Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Benaroya Hall, Seattle 1.10.2010 (BJ)


Dedicating the performance to the memory of George Shangrow, a much-admired local musician killed in a recent car accident, the Northwest Sinfonietta celebrated its 20th anniversary in Nordstrom Hall, Seattle, on 1 October with a program as representative of Austro-German classicism as could be imagined: Brahms’s Double Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

 

If Christophe Chagnard’s orchestra may now be termed long-established, it was noteworthy that neither of the soloists in the concerto had yet been born when the Sinfonietta played its first concert. Gerard Schwarz’s son Julian is only nineteen, but he has already established himself as one of the finest cellists playing today. Marié Rossano, three years younger, is a violinist of scarcely less impressive gifts. The two played with phenomenal unanimity and a refreshing readiness to take technical risks in the cause of passionate expression. They responded to a well-deserved standing ovation with an entertaining dash through Johan Halvorsen’s arrangement of the Passacaglia from Handel’s 7th keyboard suite.

Played by only about 40 musicians in this intimate venue, without the luxuriant mattress of massed string tone on which it usually reposes, Brahms’s concerto benefitted from crisper textures and more forcefully contrasted cross-rhythms. As a result, the music sounded fresher, and in a fascinating way more modern, than ever.

Both here and in Beethoven after intermission the orchestra played superbly. It’s an especial pleasure to watch a conductor who knows what his left hand is for. Blessedly immune from what Adrian Boult used to call “the Grecian vase effect,” Chagnard eschews counterproductive doubling of gesture in favor of due emphasis on expressive nuance and molding of phrases. When are we going to hear him guest-conducting the Seattle Symphony? His Eroica was a reading of rare rhythmic impulse and, again, clarity of texture, firmly underpinned by Todd Larsen’s and Anna Doak’s skillful negotiation of that notorious intonation trap–a double-bass part played by just two instruments. Shannon Spicciati and Darrin Thaves contributed some delectable oboe and flute solos, and the horn section played like true virtuosos in the trio of the scherzo. An interesting touch was to play one of the first variations in the finale with solo strings, an effect for which some warrant can be found in the textual sources.

It could be said that this was a daylight Eroica, somewhat short of mystery. The trick in conducting classical symphonies is to establish a fruitful symbiosis between unity of form and variety of expression. Chagnard came down fairly firmly on the side of unity, and there were one or two moments when I could have wished for a little more flexibility of pulse. But no matter: this was a performance emphasizing once more that he and the Sinfonietta are a combined force to be reckoned with on today’s orchestral scene.

Bernard Jacobson

A shorter version of this review appeared in the Seattle Times.