SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Rouse, Mozart, Rachmaninoff: Leon Fleisher (piano) Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Peter Oundjian (conductor) Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, 30.9.2009 (PPLL)

Rouse: The Infernal Machine
Mozart: Piano Conerto No.12 in A, K.414
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No.2

Following the successful season’s opening concert one week ago, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) under the direction of its Music Director Peter Oundjian presented the first of two programmes that featured two of the grand masters of the piano. Leon Fleisher, who recently performed in Montréal with the celebrated cellist Matt Haimovitz and Friends at the eXcentris, turned from the Romantic repertoire of Brahms, Dvořák, and Schumann a few evenings ago to Mozart’s brilliant Piano Concerto No.12 the main feature in tonight’s programme.

Before that the TSO opened the evening with Christophe Rousse’s The Infernal Machine. One of the most important American composers of our time Rouse has achieved similar popularity to that of his colleagues, John Adams and Jennifer Higdon: his Trombone Concerto (1991) was awarded the ‘Pulitzer Prize for Music.’ Composed in 1981, The Infernal Machine is a short orchestral showpiece inspired by “the vision of a great self-sufficient machine eternally in motion for no particular purpose,” according to Maestro Oundjian. Rouse composed this ‘perpetuum mobile,’ as he calls it, to display complex coordination between different sections of the orchestra and to highlight some spectacular orchestral textures. This piece is a witty-spiky fun-splash with interweaving dialogues between the woodwind, brass and the percussion sections, while the the orchestral strings provide an underlying rhythmic pulse that gradually pushes the music into a high-energy state. The music builds into a powerful clash at the end, with culminating synchronicities enhanced by the percussion.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.12 was composed in 1782, and as the composer recounted in a letter to his father Leopold, it is one of “a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; it is very brilliant, pleasing to the ear and natural, without being vapid.” The celebrated US based pianist, conductor and pedagogue Leon Fleisher entered on stage dressed in a black Chinese cardigan jacket and was warmly applauded by the audience as he walked onto the concert stage. Prior to the performance, Maestro Oundjian wittily remarked that Prof. Fleisher’s début some fifty-four years ago would always remain something of a mystery, but many still remember his infamous mono recording of Brahms’s Two Piano Concertos in 1956. Today, Fleisher returned as soloist in this Mozart Concerto, after many years of rehabilitation to the focal dystonia that affected the palmar muscles of his right hand. Although many of the trills and ornamentations in the first movement proved to be a great challenge, and even hinted signs of pain and struggle as heard with the mini cadenza, Prof. Fleisher played the second movement with the convincing beauty and meticulous lyricism of his glorious years between the 1940s and early 1960s. The third movement Allegretto, contrasted nicely with the tempo changes and mood swings from the prior movements. One of Prof. Fleisher ‘s most treasured musical gifts, particularly when playing Mozart on the keyboard, is his remarkable ability to bring great sophistication to apparent simplicity. In this modest piano work that Mozart composed to be playable even with a string quartet accompaniment, Prof. Fleisher elicited an essential richness from its melodies, with many hints of delightful invention..

The years of 1900-1901 marked a significant period in Rachmaninoff’s life as a composer, as Rachmaninoff began to recuperate from the creative block that afflicted him in the previous 3 years. Maestro Oundjian reminded us that this was a time when beautiful melodies flourished in Rachmaninoff’s musical output. In addition to the Piano Concerto No.2, whose melodies were later featured in films like Grand Hotel (1932) and September Affair (1950), his other major achievement was this Symphony No.2 in E Minor, Op.27. Recently rearranged as a piano concerto by the Russian composer Alexander Warenberg (and nicknamed “Rachmaninoff’s 5^th”), the Symphony No.2 is still an impressive and characteristic work. Kevin Bazzana in his programme notes called it “unabashedly Romantic and melodic, fervently emotional, dramatically charged, brilliantly orchestrated.” At close to 63 minutes, the opening first movement revealed itself as somewhat measured and formulaic in this performance, with the ensuing allegro moderato showing scarcely any contrast. This signaled a continuing problem – almost sounding as if the performance was a rehearsal run-through. When the allegro’s second subject failed to differentiate itself significantly from the first subject, the problem escalated into something of a crisis with Maestro Oundjian and the TSO musicians apparently producing narrowed dynamics too : one instance of which was the undramatic and doleful return of the Symphony’s ‘motto’ theme that surrounds the development section. While the return of the second subject did feature gorgeously serene string playing, it would have made a much greater impression if there been more contrast in the surrounding orchestral sections. The Scherzo came off best with its notorious Dies Irae-like horn theme, with nicely complimenting rhythmic phrasings from the trombones. However, the famous Adagio motive in the third movement seemed stagnant and thick-layered. The finale also lacked the blazing glory the music deserves – almost as if to signal tiredness and drifting attention from some of performers. There was as general lack of energy and heated tension compared with some great recorded performances . Fortunately, although this very performance proved to be the least satisfying of the three works presented on this evening, Maestro Oundjian and the TSO musicians repeat of the same work on the following Sunday (also reviewed today) sounded like a rebirth. This Wednesday performance and the repeat did demonstrate however that while the TSO can have occasional, musical ‘mood-swings,’ they are always striving for higher standards. This is only one of several sterling qualities that makes Torontonians proud of their home Orchestra.

Patrick P.L. Lam