Concert Review: Liberty, Love, & The Firebird / December 8, 2018
Review by D. S. Crafts
for the Journal
Homage to Bernstein
The New Mexico Philharmonic gave its last concert of the year in Popejoy Hall this past Saturday—Liberty, Love & the Firebird. Continuing the 100th birthday tribute to Leonard Bernstein, whom Music Director Roberto Minczuk called the greatest American musician, the program included the composer’s rarely heard Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) featuring guest violinist Jennifer Fratschi, a New Mexico favorite.
Minczuk directed first on the program George Enescu’s Variations on Wake Up, Romanian!, a work written in homage of the song that later became the Romanian national anthem. Clearly the work has, if not a specifically Romanian, an Eastern European character, and the final heart-pounding swirls of color recall the composer’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 2
New Mexicans have frequently had a chance to hear Violinist Jennifer Frautschi, having played with both major orchestras, as well as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Her exquisite technique elicits a tone both crystal clear and expressively visceral. She does so on the 1722 Stradivarius “ex-Cadiz.” And her tone lent itself perfectly to the many and frequent changes of mood and color the work provides.
The opening handful of notes of Phaedrus/Pausanias clearly show Bernstein’s melodic fingerprint. After an initial lyrical section, one would be hard-pressed to find a more joyous use of double stops. Eryximachus came as a highly animated conversation between soloist and orchestra. Perhaps the heart of the work, the movement Agathon represents the famous speech in praise of all aspects of love, its slow pace beautifully sculpted by Minczuk. Finally jazz elements reflect the bawdy interruption of the symposium by Alcibiades and his unruly gang. It is a sound hardly ancient Greek in expression, but I won’t tell if you won’t.Frautchi and Minczuk make a most persuasive case for this infrequently-performed work, but probably it will never be part of the “A” violin repertory.
Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun opened the second half. The work is said to have been a particular favorite of Bernstein’s, making it a welcome addition to the concert. Minczuk, conducting in his physical style of extroverted animation, created an atmosphere alternately luscious and exotic in this piece of musical Impressionism.
Finally, the Suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird concluded the evening. The Introduction, beginning in the low strings, rose mystically as incense in an ancient temple. “The Princesses’ Khorovod” is a beautiful melody, highly reminiscent of Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky Korsakov. The Infernal dance of King Kaschei came as an aural explosion that would not let up. The final movements of the work moved from the gentle, yet strangely alien Lullaby (Berceuse) to the Finale full of brilliant sonorities throughout the orchestra. A genuine showpiece for this excellent orchestra.
•
