Nearly two weeks ago, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 provided the finale to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's splashy season-opening gala concert. The Tchaikovsky thread has carried over into the BSO's first subscription series concerts of 2009-2010; one of his greatest hits, Symphony No. 4, closes the program.
Next week's lineup will end with yet another Tchaikovsky war horse, the Violin Concerto, so we've got a clear little trend going on here. (And people complained that former music director Yuri Temirkanov did too much Russian stuff.)
Musically speaking, Tchaikovsky is faring a lot better this week than he did at that gala, when Lang Lang applied too much bling bling to the concerto. On Thursday night, all was serious, sensible and satisfying as Marin Alsop led a forceful account of the fate-challenging Fourth Symphony that found the BSO playing impressively.
Individualistic touches were not exactly rampant, but the conductor's approach had an invigorating sweep that gave each drama-drenched moment its due, right from the opening notes.
The second movement, graced by Katherine Needleman's golden oboe solo, was perhaps too squarely phrased, but still conveyed considerable warmth, and the scherzo was very effectively carried off - lots of dynamic nuance, even at a good sprint. The finale really crackled, showing off the fearless strings to fine advantage.
This performance seemed doubly rewarding, given the unevenness earlier. The program, very Alsop in its mix of the standard and the new, is part of, yes, another connective theme running throughout the season - music that reflects cultural roots.
So the taste of Russian folk tunes in the Tchaikovsky symphony had a counterpart in the ethnic flavor of Brahms' "Hungarian Dances," which opened the evening. Alsop put a few effective bends in the rhythm in those dances, but more charm would have been nice, and the orchestra sounded in need of some technical tightening.
Next up was the area premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Concerto "4-3," a vehicle composed for a hip, young crossover ensemble called Time for Three. (Last season's subscription concerts ended with the area premiere of Higdon's Violin Concerto, so having Higdon back to start this season's series suggests that connective threads have become, well, a connective thread in BSO programming.)
