MUSIC REVIEW: Tanglewood Music Center season opener

TANGLEWOOD
Opening Exercises
Ozawa Hall
July 5, 2010
 

 

Reviewed by Clarence Fanto

LENOX, Mass. (July 5) — With a hot, humid air mass kicking in, Raphael Frubeck de Burgos's Spanish-flavored program was the perfect curtain-raiser for the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra at Ozawa Hall Monday afternoon. The repertoire hits the sweet spot for the esteemed Spanish maestro and the advanced players of the Boston Symphony's summer institute delivered their usual astounding performance after less than two weeks of rehearsal.

Fruhbeck has been a most-welcome guest conductor at the BSO and the TMC, especially for the past decade and at 76, he has only grown in stature as a master of orchestral color as well as precision. His musical palette emphasizes wide dynamic contrast, dramatic flair and an ability to draw inspired, deeply committed playing from any orchestra — even one whose members first met early this summer.

Spanish classical music tends to be under-performed in this country, so it was refreshing to hear the orchestral version of Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician) interpreted with great gusto and authenticity. The Ritual Fire Dance has a life of its own; Fruhbeck drew out the highly inflected, flamenco-influenced rhythms of this movement, as well as the languorous depiction of the composer's Andalusian home elsewhere in the suite.

Originally composed with sung text for mezzo-soprano, de Falla's rearrangement into a purely orchestral version loses little of the fiery passion that infuses the complete work. Crisply-executed violin solos by TMC Fellow Alexandra Early and notable contributions by the orchestra's principal wind players more than compensated for technical insecurity in the horn section, which cropped up throughout the afternoon.

Fruhbeck orchestrated a suite from three piano works by Spain's other prominent composer, Isaac Albeniz, and the depictions of Cordoba, Grenada and the Corpus Christi festival in Seville emerged as a glossy travelogue with mystical, nocturnal sections of great repose and tranquility contrasted with exotic dance rhythms and vigorous marches. The TMC players again delivered an idiomatic, skillful performance that would have been the envy of any major ensemble.

As is customary at these concerts, an up-and-coming conductor was given the spotlight in one work — Christian Macelaru of Romania led a high-energy romp through Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol that was enhanced by the outstanding first-violin solo work of Amy Galluzzo along with the technical sheen and expressiveness of bassoonist Thomas DeWitt, clarinetist Georgiy Borisov and flutist Jessica Anastasio, among others in the wind section. Also taking well-deserved solo bows were trumpeter Eli Maurer and trombonist Samuel Schlosser.

Crossing the border into France for the final work, Debussy's La Mer, Fruhbeck returned to the podium for an interpretation that emphasized drama over subtlety as the wind and waves played out over a stormy ocean. It was the most polished performance of the afternoon and with the heat enveloping the hall, a listener could be forgiven for longing to jump into chilly waters after the ovations subsided.

As has become customary in recent seasons, there was cross-pollination as several BSO members sat in, including assistant principal cellist Martha Babcock; later in the summer, TMC players will get a chance to perform alongside their BSO faculty members. It was also good to see Pittsfield High graduate Kathryn Andersen, a skilled up-and-coming violinist, on the stage.

Prior to the concert, the TMC's annual opening exercises featured an especially substantive program — a performance by renowned mezzo Stephanie Blythe, who attended the institute in 1993 and 1994, with faculty pianist Alan Louis Smith of selections from Copland's "Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson." Blythe's soaring tones rang through the hall with great precision.

The usual pep talks to the assembled students were delivered by composer-conductor John Harbison, chairman of the composition program at the TMC — his dry wit and perceptive remarks directed at players, singers, composers and conductors separately, offered keen perspective on what can be gained from the summer program that would last a lifetime for those who choose an artistically rewarding but difficult career in classical music. Harbison attended the institute in 1959 and 1960 and knows quite well whereof he speaks.

Michael Tilson Thomas, among the most famed living alumni of the TMC and former associate conductor of the BSO, offered remarkable, mostly unscripted insights into what a life in music entails, relying on a detailed description of Tanglewood founder Serge Koussevitzky's difficult odyssey from Czarist Russia to Paris and eventually the podium of the Boston Symphony. Who better than the grandson of Yiddish theater stars as a raconteur extraordinaire, tracing the musical roots of the BSO's esteemed music director (1924-49).

With panache, flair and amusing ventures into Russian-accented anecdotes, MTT was passionate in his heartfelt re-creation of the struggle between intellect and feeling that challenges all musicians. Advocating instinct and emotion as a vital combination needed to turn a technical skilled player into a genuine artist, the conductor proved for the second straight year that although his current musical home is in San Francisco, his contributions to Tanglewood are inspirational and highly welcome. It's our good fortune that he'll be on the podium Friday night for the BSO's gala season opener, Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony as well as several additional programs later this month.

The assembled Fellows' annual singing of Randall Thompson's stirring Alleluia, composed for the TMC's opening season in 1940 left many in the audience pushing back tears, including yours truly. As James Taylor has observed, this is where the "real music" happens and there's much to eagerly anticipate at Ozawa Hall as well as the Koussevitzky Shed as the summer unfolds.

Clarence Fanto reviews music for Berkshireliving.com and is a contributing editor of Berkshire Living Magazine.