Personal bests

[Above: Arnaldo Cohen plays Rachmaninoff]

Who: Pianist Arnaldo Cohen and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Warren-Green
What: Music of Sibelius, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: January 27–29, 2012

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The word “substitute” often has pejorative undertones, but this weekend at Powell Hall defies them. Pianist Arnaldo Cohen and conductor Christopher Warren-Green may have been substitutes for Louis Lortie and Vassily Sinaisky, respectively, but their work Friday morning was beyond reproach, providing a highly caffeinated mix of Sibelius, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky to go with the free donuts at the 10:30 AM Coffee Concert.

In his program notes, Paul Schiavo reminds us that the notion of “self-expression, and especially the expression of personal feelings, as one of music’s primary purposes” is largely a product of the Romantic era. Certainly that’s true of Sibelius’s turbulent En Saga, which opened the program.

Sibelius wrote that the piece was “the expression of a state of mind” related to “a number of painful experiences”, a statement clearly borne out by the restless string and dramatic wind passages. Mr. Warren-Green’s conducting was disciplined without sacrificing one iota of passion. The orchestra played up to its usual standard, with great solo work from Acting Principal violist Kathleen Mattis and Associate Principal clarinetist Diana Haskell (who has a CD on sale at the boutique, FYI).

Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is not openly autobiographical, but it did occupy the composer’s thoughts for nearly half of his life. Consider: he started sketching it in 1830, revised it at least four times, first performed it in 1855 (with Hector Berlioz, no less, on the podium), revised it in 1856, and then saw it virtually banned in Vienna until 1869 because of a snarky review by the overly influential critic Eduard Hanslick. Besides, the flash of the piano part (rendered with fluid grace by Mr. Cohen) and the (then) innovative use of recurring thematic material are pure Liszt. Mr. Warren-Green conducted with great assurance here as well.

It was Hanslick who dubbed this the “Triangle Concerto” because of the liberal use of that humble member of the percussion battery in a duet with the piano in the second half of the piece. He meant it as an insult, but in fact it’s a charming sonic accent. Liszt knew what he was about. “In the face of the most wise proscription of the learned critics,” he wrote, “I shall, however, continue to employ instruments of percussion, and think I shall yet win for them some effects little known.”

Tchaikovsky was taking his share of knocks from critics when he began work on his Symphony No. 4, a situation exacerbated by his anxiety over the possible discovery of his homosexuality and a brief and disastrous marriage to a former student. He poured all of his hope and despair into the work — so much so that some critics originally dismissed it as too programmatic and not enough like a real symphony. His friend and fellow composer Sergei Taneyev even complained that “in every movement there are phrases which sound like ballet music” — as if this were, somehow, unsymphonic.

Personally, I’ve always regarded the Fourth as one of Tchaikovsky’s most compact and dramatically impressive symphonies. A good performance never fails to deliver the passion, and Friday’s was first class all the way. Tempi were very well chosen and the cumulative power of the work was stunning; Mr. Warren-Green should have been conducting with a lighting rod, given the amount of electricity he generated. The musicians played with their customary polish, with the pizzicato strings in the third movement being particularly impressive.

Next at Powell Hall: Friday and Saturday at 8, February 3 and 4, Concertmaster David Halen is the soloist for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski on the podium. Also on the program will be the overture to Weber’s Oberon and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 (“The Great”). For more information you may call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, like the Saint Louis Symphony Facebook page, or follow @slso on Twitter.