Violinist Nicola Benedetti and conductor Karina Canellakis debuted collectively at Symphony Corridor in Karol Szymanowski’s 1933 concerto. Not performed by the BSO since 1905, how coincidental Antonin Dvořák’s The Wild Dove paired with a present close by high-profile homicide case. Together with Witold Lutoslawski’s mid-20th century Concerto for Orchestra, a sure esthetic pall hung over Boston’s revered Corridor. But, by way of her conducting, Canellakis shed gentle, making music seen, and in that regard, lit up the room. For listeners new to those compositions, the three works would possibly seem extra comparable than they really are.
Haunting cooing from the orchestra chilled Symphony Corridor in its opener, The Wild Dove, beneath Canellakis. The tone poem recounts the story of a girl who poisons her husband, marries a youthful man, and commits suicide upon listening to that hen’s mushy murmurs. Thursday night, the 41-year-old New Yorker Canellakis revealed to the Boston viewers why she at the moment holds high positions on the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin. A violinist herself, Canellakis accepted Simon Rattle’s recommendation to take up conducting.
A sustained kinetic vitality from the rostrum made for a really watchable Canellakis all through the night, even so within the Violin Concerto No. 2 of Szymanowski that includes Nicola Benedetti. Why play Szymanowski may be answered by her prizewinning efficiency of that composer’s first violin concerto. Since then, Benedetti has gone on to play with main orchestras around the globe recording a handful of albums, one among which received a Grammy. She has been quoted as eager to “shake issues up”—and that she did.
The younger violinist delivered to the 20-minute nonstop concerto a broad sound vitality with an intensely opulent vibrato simply reaching the farthest second balcony from the stage. She introduced a extremely charged reckoning of doubling and tripling up on strings in quick tempo additionally nonstop by way of the two-minute-plus cadenza that splits the work in two. Towards the top, she posed lengthy held lyrical notes with artistry and poetry by way of a leaning bow describing teardrops.
The Szymanowski will not be all the time the best to observe, one purpose being its deep, slowly transferring harmonic underpinning that darkens the whole piece. If that’s to be regarded as waves, the violin then may be understood as some glittering aspect, and the orchestra’s devices as a mirrored image of assorted watery hues. The massive orchestra generally overshadowed the subtleties, of Szymanowski, particularly within the composition’s many builds, or huge waves.
Not surprisingly then, along with a chilly, wet New England evening, attendance was on the low facet. Surprisingly, although, those that did attend referred to as Benedetti and Karina Canellakis again with round-after-round of applause and cheers declaring their approval. This is able to even be the case for a 3rd Slavic work on an uncommon program.
Symphony continued to darken—vividly—with highly effective, robust emotions and clear photographs within the thoughts by means of Witold Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. The mid-20th-century concerto echoed Bartók’s treasured instance from just a few years earlier. The 2 concertos, although, exist miles aside. With this Polish composer, subtlety will not be the phrase as with Szymanowski. Wavelike flows yield to stretches of textures in daring geometrics.
Starting the primary motion, the tympanist loudly resounds a single threatening notice that continues nicely into the primary motion. Ending the motion, the celesta resounds over and once more that impending notice excessive up. What could possibly be darker than the double basses plucking their lowest tones slowly spaced out—the opposite facet of awe? With Canellakis main an expanded BSO, the Lutoslawski concerto would shine particularly within the center motion with glamorized woodwinds and within the Bartók-inspired chorale with tantalizing brass. Your complete BSO lifted to virtuosic show, Canellakis diverting darkness with extraordinarily rhythmized timbres and brightened textures characterizing this putting efficiency.
