Friday night's concert by the Lexington Philharmonic was not the first time I heard them play this repertoire. Last week, I was assigned to be their cover conductor so I had been observing their rehearsals from beginning to end - watching, listening, giving feedback to Scott Turrell (Music Director) and talking to the players about the pieces. I was very curious, therefore, to hear a fresh opinion of the concert.
Blair spend most of his (or her? is "Tedrin" a masculine or feminine name?) time focused on the Beethoven Violin concerto played by internationally renowned soloist Midori - naturally. There's a lot more problems to comment on when accompanying a soloist so there's typically more meat for critics to chew on. In general, I thought his comments were good though I wish at least the Ravel would have gotten some of the attention that Midori received.
His main comment was that the LPO's strength and "ruggedness" didn't match the delecacy of Midori's rendition of the concerto. Midori's approach was much more classical, more restrained and gentle than most, which I found very refreshing. However, this made it very difficult to accompany. Already, the string section had been reduced by at least 2 stands from it's normal size. After the dress rehearsal (the only time they had to rehearse with Midori and only 45 minutes at that) another stand from each section was cut. Also, the winds and brass were moved from the center risers to stage right on the floor to help with balance issues. In all, everything that could be done to gentle the orchestra was done.
In all fairness, Blair does say that "almost any orchestra would have sounded inelegant alongside Midori..." and I agree. There were times I could barely hear her when she was playing by herself, let alone trying to be heard over a full symphony orchestra. Her sound was beautiful, with a kind of sweetness I had never heard in the Beethoven. Great... if you are playing a lone or with pizzicato accompaniment. But it's a balancing nightmare to try and accompany that kind of sound without squishing the soloist. Particularly in our concert hall.
Our concert hall in the Singletary center favors winds and brass far more than strings, especially strings that are close to the audience - like a violin soloist, for example. The further back a player is, the better they are heard. This means the winds and brass are very live, the strings less so, and the soloist even less live then the string section. Blair did have many positive things to say about the concerto - breathtaking moments, the fine bassoon solos etc. I thought his review of the Beethoven was fair, but didn't take into account hall acoustics and other factors.
I do understand only taking a few sentences to talk about the two Tchaikovsky pieces - the Waltz and Polonaise from Eugene Onegin. There's not much meat on them. They are just show pieces. But a work like La Valse by Ravel certainly deserves more attention that one sentence: "The concert ended with Ravel's La Valse, which Terrell rendered aggressively, emphasizing the piece's menace more than its evanescence, but bringing out its brilliant orchestral colors sharply and clearly."
La Valse (though having typical "Ravelian", French colors) is far from being a generally delicate or "evanescent" piece. La Valse carries the listener thought the Waltz - it's birth, it's growth, and finally it's death as is whirls out of control toward the end of the piece ending with a huge crash. Many of the sections are quite aggressive and explode with fireworks of sound. My memory of the piece was that the LPO rendered the delicate spots delicately and the aggressive sections aggressively. I'm not so sure there was an overemphasis of one over the other that isn't inherent to the music itself. Perhaps Blair was just reacting negatively to the menacing sections without realizing that they are meant to be so. Not sure. I thought this comment was true, but didn't account for the fact that the piece is, in fact, very "menacing" at times.
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