SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Corelli, Barber, Vivaldi, Grainger, Vaughan Williams, and Tchaikovsky: Rossen Milanov, cond., Joshua Roman and Julian Schwarz, cellos, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 29.11.2007 (BJ)

his veritable omnium-gatherum of a program offered an assortment of “Delights of the Holiday Season” that embraced Corelli and Vivaldi, pieces by three 20th-century composers, and a generous selection of movements from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Of the three relative “moderns” represented, Samuel Barber, in his Die natali,  rather uncharacteristically emerged the most astringent: this set of “chorale preludes for Christmas” is no mere warm bath of emotionalism, but a work that strikes a nice balance between the composer’s trademark romanticism and some fairly acidulous instrumental writing. Percy Grainger was represented by his vivacious Molly on the Shore, and Vaughan Williams by his lovely Fantasia on Greensleeves, in the orchestral version by Ralph Greaves.

It was a pleasantly global experience to hear an Irish reel by an Australian composer and a piece of very English folk-song-ry played by an American orchestra under the baton of a Bulgarian. Rossen Milanov is a talented conductor whose performance of the Stoppard/Previn Every Good Boy Deserves Favour impressed me no end in his days as associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the 20th-century pieces on this program, and in the Nutcracker sequence that ended the evening, he drew mettlesome playing and crisp ensemble from the Seattle Symphony. Among the woodwinds and brass, it was principal flute Scott Goff who  had the most conspicuous opportunities to shine, and he seized them with his customary gusto and taste.

A praiseworthy aspect of the concert was the distinction that Milanov, as a guest conductor, was able to elicit from the orchestra’s strings -  between familiar 19th  and 20th-century richness of tone in those works and a very different, nearly vibrato-less quality in Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto and in a G-minor Concerto for Two Cellos by Vivaldi. This provided the evening’s biggest success, stimulating the audience to a vociferous standing ovation. The soloists were two superb young players – the Seattle Symphony’s 23-year-old principal cellist Joshua Roman and the music director’s 16-year-old son Julian Schwarz – both of whom I have had occasion to review with enthusiasm several times. Roman’s velvety sound contrasted vividly with Schwarz’s meatier tone, creating an engrossing dialogue, supported with evident enjoyment by orchestra and conductor alike.


Bernard Jacobson