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Neeme Järvi Returns Taneyev to Chicago

Mary Ellyn Hutton
Posted: Oct 20, 2008 - 3:02:03 AM in reviews_2008

 

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Neeme Järvi
Behind the orchestra – on the terrace where the choristers sit -- was the place to be for Thursday evening’s (Oct. 16) Chicago Symphony concert at Orchestra Hall.

   It was a fine place to relish guest artist Yefim Bronfman’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

   And it afforded a welcome opportunity to observe the great Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi from the players’ perspective.

   Järvi, 71, has arguably the finest conducting technique in the world.  He also commands a huge and ever-expanding repertoire.  He brought both to Chicago with Sergei Taneyev’s Symphony No. 4 (1898).  Not only was it a CSO premiere, but their first performance of music by the turn-of-the-century Russian since 1917, when they performed the overture to his opera “Oresteia.”  Järvi has recorded both with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Chandos 1992).

   The Chicagoans clearly warmed to their task, perhaps finding it a welcome respite from the more familiar works that repeatedly pass over their desks.  (A neighbor in the terrace seats remarked that he had rarely heard the CSO have so much fun.)

   Trained at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Nikolai Rabinovitch and Yevgeny Mravinsky, Järvi exemplifies both precision and a rich conducting vocabulary, with gestures tailored closely to the music’s expressive content.  He practices economy, however, giving the players just what they need without gratuitous display.  It can be a mere hunching of the shoulders, sweeping motions of the baton or no baton at all.  Cues are scrupulously delivered by pointing, jabbing, lifting the eyes or holding out a hand, and he can carve the same passage in numerous ways for varying interpretive effects.

   Taneyev’s Fourth Symphony begs for this, since it is loaded with musical material..

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Sergei Taneyev
A student of Tchaikovsky and teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, Taneyev was called the “Russian Bach” and the “Russian Brahms” for his consummate mastery of counterpoint.  Much admired as a pianist and composer, he was also generous and well-liked.  He died relatively young at 58, having written a huge treatise on counterpoint.  He was a cosmopolitan like Tchaikovsky rather than one of the Russian nationalists, and he championed and premiered all of his teacher’s piano concertos.

   Taneyev crafted a rich palette for his Symphony No. 4, beginning in the first movement (Allegro Molto) with a dramatic, three-note introductory motif that returns in various guises throughout the work.  The movement’s other thematic materials include a lilting, Tchaikovskian melody and a somewhat catchy, cadential brass statement.

   The second movement (Adagio), shaped lovingly by Järvi, had a pastoral quality.  The effect was of gleaming, intertwining ribbons, with achingly beautiful clarinet and horn solos and a lone violin signing off sublimely at the end.

   Järvi handled the tricky rhythms of the Scherzo Vivace with ease, imparting lots of cheer from the merry oboe solo at the beginning to the impish, two-note plucked ending.  The contrasting middle section breathed grace and feeling, with lush writing for the strings.

   The Allegro Energico finale ignited licks of snare drum and a lively staccato theme that interacted with virtually everything for a busy, vibrant texture.  There was a big cutoff followed by the return of themes from earlier movements and a huge outpouring of brass.  Järvi kept the rope taut through a majestic buildup that ended grandly with prolonged timpani rolls.

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Yefim Bronfman
Bronfman’s appearance marked a return engagement with Järvi and the Chicago Symphony, the two having made their joint CSO debut in 1985 in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.

   The “Rach 3” had an ideal interpreter in Bronfman who gave it a full measure of virtuosity and emotive power.   Nothing seemed beyond his reach and even Järvi widened his eyes during his daunting solo exertions in the finale.  The crowd, scattered throughout the 2,500-seat hall, demanded an encore, Arabesque in C Major by Schumann.

   The concert repeats Oct. 17, 18 and 21 at Orchestra Hall.

  

     

   

  

  

  

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