In a conversation with Maestro Riccardo Muti last fall, the conductor talked about how all the events of the day – whether mundane or monumental – invariably have an impact on that evening’s performance. Thursday night at Symphony Center, where he returned to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a clearly shaken Muti faced a packed house and spoke briefly about the massacre in Orlando on June 12. He noted that the program the audience was about to hear – Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D Major” and Brahms’ “Serenade No. 1 in D Major” – were works of beauty and love by two master composers, and that they were exactly what the world needed. He then asked the audience to join him in a moment of silence.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Highly recommended
When: June 18 at 8 p.m. and
June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Symphony Center,
220 S. Michigan
Tickets: $36 – $260
Info: (312) 294-3000;
Run time: 2 hours and
10 minutes with one intermission
Beethoven, of course, was a great stormy soul- a composer whose moods could swing dramatically from agitation and rage to euphoria, with everything in between. So the familiar yet always surprising “Violin Concerto” fit the temper of the times to perfection. And Julia Fischer, the acclaimed 33-year-old German-born violinist with whom Muti clearly shares an ideal synergy, brought something far beyond exquisite technique to her performance, capturing every emotional shift with the greatest subtlety and precision.
Fischer lured her audience into a state of intense listening: From strains of melody that are just barely audible; to a full-bodied lyricism notable for its delicate articulation and the sweetness and fervency of its tone; to slow, pensive passages played with the most confident understatement; to bravura sections expressing the sort of inner triumph that often emerge in a Beethoven work.
Although she is a bravura musician, Fischer is not one for showy theatrics. Yet she puts her personal stamp on every line. In a long solo section her single violin at times sounded almost as if there were actually two violins at work. And throughout, her playing had the effect of making her instrument take on the shadings of a human voice. This, of course, is exactly what Muti, whose roots in opera are so deep, continually does with the CSO as a whole. Everything sings, with the full string section of the orchestra particularly full of color and nuance.
Muti selects his soloists with great attention to their interpretive powers, and it would be difficult to imagine a more perfect synchrony than the one forged here between Fischer and the orchestra. They were as one at every moment. A prolonged standing ovation for Fischer led to an encore. And even the choice of this work – Bach’s “Sarabande from Partita in D minor” – reflected a deep thoughtfulness. Listen carefully and it is like hearing the early “skeletal” pattern for the solo passages in the Beethoven concerto.
Brahms is quite a different musical personality, and the “Serenade” – a youthful work, and an early “warm-up” for the symphonies that would come later – suggests that spirit from the moment the horns first sound, and the orchestra launches into a stormy but rapturous sweep of dance-like music at once lush and playful. Everything Brahms wrote is filled with movement – with melodies that swirl organically and possess a fullness and voluptuousness of spirit.
The work of recently appointed principal flutist Stefan Ragnar Haskuldsson was of particular note, with the winds supplying added heat. In an especially lovely passage in the work the low strings create a beautiful hum, with the winds adding a solemn but healing sound. The final movement of the work gathers energy for an almost race-course like finish.
At times the “Serenade” feels somewhat longer and more repetitive than it needs to be. But there also is something healing and humanistic about the sheer life force that continually drives it. And as Muti said, that is what is needed now.
NOTE: Bass-baritone Eric Owens will be stepping in as the bass soloist for the upcoming performances of Bruckner’s “Te Deum” featuring the CSO and Chorus led by Maestro Muti on June 23, 25 and 26. He is replacing bass Christof Fischesser, who has withdrawn from these performances due to illness. Other featured soloists for these performances remain the same, as does the program which also includes Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 9. “
