Symphony Review: Afkham and Ashkar are a Dynamic Duo with the SLSO

David Afkham. Photo by Gisela Schenker courtesy of the SLSO

It’s always intriguing to see what happens when a guest conductor makes his debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. German-born conductor David Afkham’s first appearance with the orchestra last Sunday (February 23) was quite a striking one, with dynamic performances of Mozart, Brahms, and contemporary (b. 1985) Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen.

[Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.]

This weekend marked the second appearance of Tarkiainen’s music on an SLSO program (the first was her 2019 “Midnight Sun Variations” in 2021), and I was struck with the similarity between that work and the one we’ll hear this weekend, her 2021 “The Ring of Fire and Love” from 2021. Both works begin and end quietly with the orchestra’s highest voices playing against the lowest, both build to a blow-your-hair-back sonic explosion, and both conclude almost (but not quite) as they began.

Both were also heavily influenced by the experience of Tarkiainen giving birth to her first child and both have a strongly visual aspect for the composer, who is synesthetic—someone who literally sees music as colors. In this respect, she’s in some august company, including Scriabin, Rimski-Korsakov, and Gully Foyle in Alfred Bester’s science fiction classic “The Stars My Destination” (which, BTW, now looks eerily prescient).

Those superficial similarities aside though, “The Ring of Fire and Love” feels like a much bigger and more cinematic work. In a BBC interview, the composer described “Midnight Sun Variations” as being mostly about “the colors of the northern sky during the summer…but also about the opening of a woman’s body to accommodate a new life.” As Tarkiainen writes on her web site, “The Ring of Fire and Love” extends the scope to include the geological and astronomical “Rings of Fire” as well as birth experience:

Outi Tarkiainen. Photo by Saara Salmi
courtesy of the SLSO

“The Ring of Fire is a volcanic belt that surrounds the Pacific Ocean and in which most of the world’s earthquakes occur. It is also the term referring to the bright ring of sunlight around the moon at the height of a solar eclipse... Yet, the same expression is also used to describe what a woman feels when, as she gives birth, the baby’s head passes through her pelvis. That moment is the most dangerous in the baby’s life, its little skull being subjected to enormous pressure, preparing it for life in a way unlike any other. The Ring of Fire and Love is a work for orchestra about this earth-shattering, creative, cataclysmic moment they travel through together.”

“Cataclysmic,” as it happens, is a pretty good way to describe the experience of seeing “The Ring of Fire and Love” live. The delicate passages for harp, celesta, and muted trumpet that make up most of the second half of the work were nicely done by Megan Stout, Peter Henderson, and Steven Franklin, respectively. The combination of shrieking high woodwinds and ominous, growling percussion that open the piece conjure images of something big and dramatic—a promise kept by the massive orchestral blowout at almost exactly the halfway point.

The piece was a major attention grabber. Vast quantities of congratulations are due to all concerned.

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 by W.A. Mozart (1756–1791), while lacking the HD flash of “The Ring of Fire and Love,” is still a strikingly dark and dramatic work. First performed in 1786 in Vienna, it’s scored for what was, for Mozart’s time, a pretty large orchestra, including woodwinds, horns, and tympani. The long, dramatic opening movement would have felt like cutting-edge stuff at the time and is widely viewed as one of his greatest piano concertos. Beethoven and Brahms were both big fans.

Soloist Saleem Ashkar was a perfect choice for this material. When he made his debut here with the Mendelssohn Concerto No. 2, I noted the impressive combination of technical skill and terpsichorean lightness in his playing—both of which were evident on Sunday. His cadenzas (Mozart didn’t provide any) had a Beethoven-esque feel to them that might be out of place in an earlier Mozart concerto but felt exactly right here. Afkham’s direction did not stint on the darkness that pervades the concerto, especially in that first movement, but it also brought out the tenderness in the in second movement. Yes, there moments in that movement where the drama returns, but overall it felt almost like a cradle song.

Saleem Ashkar, photo courtesy of the SLSO

The concert concluded with the Symphony No. 1, Op. 68, by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). Like the Mozart concerto, it’s in C minor and like “The Ring of Fire and Love” it begins on a portentous note with strings Un poco sostenuto over the steady tread of the tympani. Like many composers of his time, Brahms composed in the looming shadow of Beethoven (“You have no idea what it's like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you,” he once said), and I tend to hear those footsteps in that introduction. Certainly Afkham’s reading had plenty of ominous weight, offering an effective contrast with the propulsive Allegro that followed.

The Andante sostenuto second movement featured meltingly lovely solos from Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks and Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews as well as a duet between Concertmaster David Halen and Principal Horn Roger Kaza. The Un poco Allegretto e grazioso third movement was graceful and easygoing with good stuff from the clarinets (Andrews and Tzuying Huang). Afkham seemed particularly caught up in the lively Trio section, but then so was I.

A brief pause, and then we were into the stormy opening of the final movement with its titanic struggle between darkness and light and its famous main theme (which later became the theme of the hymn “Refuge”). The horn section were really in their element here, rich and warm in the main theme and simply blazing in the C major finale.

I had planned to finish this with a few words about Afkham’s podium style and the expressive use of his left hand, but upon visiting the conductor’s web site I discovered that the Chicago Tribune had beaten me to the punch:

“Afkham was a model of physical grace and musical purpose on the podium. His left hand traced broad arcs of sound while his right hand articulated beats and phrases with the utmost clarity and precision. Every interpretative choice was well-motivated and grounded in an ability to maintain orchestral control that was exacting, yet never rigid.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next from the SLSO: On Friday February 28 at 7:30 pm, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Donald Lawrence joins the SLSO, the IN UNISON Chorus, and vocal soloists for “Lift Every Voice,” the annual Black History Month celebration. Kevin McBeth conducts. Then on Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, former SLSO Resident Conductor Gemma New conducts the orchestra and vocal soloists for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 along with “Hymn to the Sun” by Kevin Puts and Elgar’s orchestration of J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537. All three performances take place at the Stifel Theatre downtown.