For the concluding program of Riccardo Muti’s April residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the music director is focusing on symphonic staples from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that carry broad popular appeal.
As is often the case in such instances, freshening the familiar appeared to be the central objective, and that objective was carried out to the evident satisfaction of the large, enthusiastic audience attending the first performance Thursday night at Orchestra Hall.
All four works were new additions to the maestro’s local repertory. The refinement of his Debussy “Nocturnes” and “Danses sacree at profane” (“Sacred and Profane Dances”), the molten power he brought to Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini” and the grace and sophistication of his “Swan Lake” Suite justified the CSO’s returning standard works to the subscription series without the counterbalance of anything contemporary on the bill.
Odd bedfellows on paper, Debussy and Tchaikovsky actually complemented one another quite nicely in performances that ranged across a wide spectrum of orchestral color.
The young French iconoclast and the mature Russian composer were aware of each other’s music, although Tchaikovsky apparently found Debussy’s pathbreaking Impressionism too advanced for his tastes. (He disparaged Debussy’s early “Danse bohemienne” after perusing a copy of the score sent him by his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck.) Debussy, on the other hand, greatly admired Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works, and such masterpieces as the “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture and Fourth Symphony strongly shaped his musical development.
The first two Debussy nocturnes, “Nuages” (“Clouds”) and “Fetes” (“Festivals”), turn up often enough on CSO programs, but to hear all three sections, including the final panel of the triptych, “Sirenes” (“Sirens”), with its prominent part for wordless women’s chorus, is relatively rare but makes perfect sense in this 100th anniversary season of the composer’s death and 60th anniversary of the debut of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Idiomatic delicacy and restraint were the words that came to mind with Muti’s “Nocturnes.” A high premium was placed on transparency of texture, and the maestro’s fine pointing of instrumental detail told in numerous ways. So did his close observance of dynamic gradations called for in the score.
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“Fetes” was one of Georg Solti’s pet encore pieces when he took the orchestra on its European tours. Whereas the previous music director went for rigid rhythmic control, Muti was after something more elastic, less pressured of sound, truer to what the composer wanted: Debussy’s marching muted trumpets emerged as if from a hazy distance.
The diaphanous, ethereal timbres of the women’s voices made Muti’s “Sirenes” as atmospheric as one could have wanted, over a sensitively modulated orchestral foundation. What I found especially remarkable about their singing was not only the precise intonation of the chromatic intervals but how much presence the choral sound retained at the softest dynamic levels.
The exquisite miniatures for harp and strings known as the “Sacred and Profane Dances” made an enjoyable pendant to the larger Debussy piece. Once again Muti went for pastel timbres and understated elegance, molding the spare string complement around the tasteful, idiomatic solo playing of Sarah Bullen, the CSO’s splendid principal harpist.
By comparison, nothing was held back in “Francesca da Rimini,” the latest addition to Muti’s CSO survey of the major Tchaikovsky tone poems. Based on the episode from Dante’s “Inferno” about the shades of the illicit lovers Francesca and Paolo, the score can be powerfully evocative when played, as here, with full-throttle color and sweep, shorn of any hint of vulgarity. The tenderness of the central section (lovely solo clarinet playing from Stephen Williamson) stood in welcome relief against the surrounding symphonic hellfire-and-brimstone.
Muti’s selections from “Swan Lake” included many of the most popular portions of that richly melodious ballet score. The performance placed a high premium on deep-piled sonority, the phrasing replete with elegance and grace. The various wind, brass, string and harp players took full advantage of their juicy solo opportunities, while the Neapolitan Dance, not surprisingly, received particularly affectionate treatment in the hands of the maestro.
The CSO program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $36-$255; 312-294-3000, www.cso.org
Hershey Felder on Tchaikovsky
Speaking of Tchaikovsky, I join my colleague Chris Jones in recommending actor-pianist Hershey Felder’s latest one-man show, “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” playing through May 13 at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theater. From his perch at the Steinway, the actor-pianist interweaves music and candid portraiture, sharing insights that flesh out one’s understanding of the composer’s creative genius and complex, troubled soul. There’s much to appreciate here for the average theatergoer and seasoned concertgoer alike.
I have caught Felder’s previous theatrical portraits of Bernstein, Beethoven, Chopin and Gershwin, and his take on Tchaikovsky strikes me as his best composer show to date, not least because it feels so authentic, so deeply personal.
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @jvonrhein
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