Tanglewood
Festival (3) Schumann, Bruch and Stravinsky:
Itzhak Perlman (violin) Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (conductor)
Tanglewood, Massachusetts 11.8.2007 (CA)
Schumann,
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Opus 97, Rhenish
Bruch,
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Opus 26
Stravinsky,
Suite from The Firebird (1919 version)
Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
seems to have conducted everywhere and everything.
He has made over 100 recordings with dozens of
orchestras since his professional debut in 1962.
Itzhak Perlman, 12 years younger than Frühbeck,
made his debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958
when he was 13 and has also played
everywhere and recorded everything since then.
He’s been performing with the Boston Symphony
since 1966 and at Tanglewood from 1967 onwards.
I mention these achievements because last Saturday
evening’s concert at Tanglewood felt much like
those I attended when I was in high school in the
60’s, and in a positive way. The program was
classic: Schumann, Stravinsky’s suite from The
Firebird (still mildly daring in my youth),
and a terrific performance of Bruch’s violin
concerto by Perlman.
This was only the second time Schumann’s so-called
Rhenish Symphony had ever been played at
Tanglewood. The themes are beautiful, the
harmonies pleasing, but the textures easily become
muddy and the work, like so many of Schumann’s
orchestral compositions, is difficult for large
orchestras to bring off cleanly. Compounding the
built-in difficulties of the piece, Frühbeck’s
tempos ranged from leisurely to downright slow.
Nonetheless, the playing was lyrically beautiful
if not inspired.
Among the pieces one needn’t hear too often, I
include Bruch’s first violin concerto. On the
other hand, perhaps Perlman should have sole
rights to this piece: he has lost none of
his youthful exuberance and has added the
confidence of age that creates a kind of
“ownership” relationship with the work. In
Perlman’s hands, the familiar melody of the final
movement transcended any lingering doubts I
harbored toward the piece itself. And how lovely
to see a real old pro pouring all his energies and
emotions into the performance. One felt happy both
to see and hear him, exactly what a concert should
be about.
Stravinsky’s Firebird is a piece that could
have been composed for the BSO. It fits their
strengths as an orchestra that can really blast
out the big pieces. There’s obviously much
subtlety to Stravinsky’s work though, and
despite more slowish tempos and a rather
conservative, straightforward approach,
Frühbeck,had a nice feel for all of it. But it was
the solo playing in the winds and brass, the crash
and bang of the fortissimo sections, and the grand
and stately playing when the original theme enters
for the finale that made for a truly pleasing
performance.
Must everything be special? I am among those
urging some kind of transformation in the
classical music world and who believe that
old-style concerts and programming hold little
promise for the future. And yet, in the right
hands and circumstances, an evening of “the
classics” still makes for wonderfully satisfying
entertainment.
Clay Andres
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