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| Stanislaw Skrowaczewski |
What: Music of Weber, Mendelssohn, and Schubert
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: February 3 and 4, 2012
Big-name international soloists and new works are all well and good, but there’s still something immensely satisfying about seeing a member of the local band step to the front and deliver a fine, polished performance of a familiar standard. That’s what concertmaster David Halen did Friday night with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, one of three comfy Romantic favorites conducted with love by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, still going strong at age 88.
It’s likely that just about every violinist on the planet has taken a crack at the Mendelssohn at one time or another. Audiences never seem to tire of it, though, and fiddlers never fail to find something new (or at least personal) in their interpretations. Mr. Halen certainly made it his own Friday night with a mix of technical facility and intense concentration that pulled me in immediately and kept me there right through the flash of the finale. Mr. Skrowaczewski was with him all the way. There was less visual communication between the two than I might have expected, but communicate they did nevertheless.
If the Mendelssohn concerto was the big solo event on the program, the Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C Major was the major orchestral event. Originally completed in 1826 and then substantially revised two years later just before the composer’s untimely death at age 31, the 9th—usually referred to as “The Great” to distinguish it from the earlier and less expansive symphony in the same key—was never performed in its final version during Schubert’s lifetime. The premiere didn’t take place until eleven years later—under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, in fact—and even then it was widely viewed as too long and too difficult to play.
They had a point about the length. Clocking in at around 50 minutes if you take all the repeats, the 9th would have seemed gargantuan at the time, dwarfed only by Beethoven’s 9th. Still, it’s hard to hear this now and not be completely captivated by the endless flow of irresistible melodies and rhythmic drive that runs throughout. It’s one of my favorite Romantic symphonies and never fails to delight me.
Mr. Skrowaczewski’s approach to the 9th struck me as very much in the mid 20th century Germanic tradition: somewhat slow tempi and a big, modern orchestral sound. It’s the sort of thing I grew up hearing. In recent years I’ve been somewhat seduced by the “original instrument” approach to music of this period exemplified by conductors like Roger Norrington or John Eliot Gardner, but this weekend’s performance reminded me of the virtues of that older approach. This was a Schubert 9th that built in power from beginning to end, starting with a hush and ending with a bang. It was all there: the magisterial first movement, the mysterious second, the boisterous third, and that magnificent piece of musical architecture, the final Allegro vivace.
The orchestra was in top form, with fine work by every section and a lovely, burnished sound overall.
The program opened with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber’s 1826 opera Oberon. It’s a lively and tune-filled curtain raiser that opens with haunting horn solo and gallops along to a lively finish. I found Mr. Skrowaczewski’s reading a bit on the stodgy side but could hardly quibble with the quality of the playing.
Next at Powell Hall: Four concerts featuring Hubbard Street Dance Chicago February 17-19. For more information you may call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, like the Saint Louis Symphony Facebook page, or follow @slso on Twitter.
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