Frühbeck de Burgos a Coup for the CSO
One of the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra’s new creative directors made his “debut” Friday night at
Music Hall. Not exactly a debut. That will be in September, but an introduction of sorts.
Conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos will be creative director of the CSO’s 2011-12 Masterworks Series. As such, he will oversee ten of next season’s 20 subscription concerts (Philip Glass and Lang Lang are co-creative directors, each in charge of five concerts each.) Frühbeck will be on the podium for two concerts. The first is opening night Sept. 22 with Mozart and Mahler.
Long-time CSO subscribers learned how
affable and well spoken Frühbeck is at a special luncheon earlier this week. Friday’s concert goers learned – if they had
not heard him on prior visits to the CSO -- of his mastery on the podium. (Footage of the maestro was being shot during the concert for use in pre-season publicity.)
Clearly the musicians are thrilled to have Frühbeck de Burgos in his new role, carved out to aid the transition from music director Paavo Järvi, who leaves the CSO the end of this season, to the appointment of his successor. The players joined in the enthusiastic applause for him after a thrilling performance of Richard Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben” to close the evening.
The concert also saw the debut of pianist
Markus Groh in a pristine performance of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2. German born Groh, 41, glorified the orchestra’s
new Steinway grand piano with his acutely sensitive, tonally beautiful reading
of the work, in which he was joined in a gorgeous collaboration by Frühbeck and the CSO.
The Spanish born conductor, 77, named 2011 Conductor of the Year by Musical America, unfolded the long exposition of the first movement with elegance and style, his energetic motions always clearly communicative. He attended Groh so closely that soloist and accompaniment melded as one. The first movement cadenza – a tour de force by Groh – dovetailed smoothly into the closing bars of the movement. The soulful Adagio was exquisitely musical and the quirky finale, with its offbeat rhythms, was sheer delight.
“Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”) was the showpiece of the evening. Autobiographical in its conception and blatantly egomaniacal, it is nevertheless great music, a metaphor, if you will (as Jonathan Kramer’s program note suggests) for Germany itself as it slid toward Nazism in the 20th century.
It was an evening to relish the orchestra in its corporate virtuosity, particularly the brasses – 18, no less, including tenor and bass tuba – who sent shivers throughout the hall every time they took the lead, whether it was the horns in the soaring hero’s theme, trumpet calls in “The Hero’s Deeds of War” or as a choir near the end.
Concertmaster Timothy Lees starred in his intricate solos (representing Strauss’ wife Pauline), with his sweet tone and nimble acrobatics. As the carping critics in part two, “The Hero’s Adversaries,” the CSO winds outdid themselves with their ironic pecking, beautifully juxtaposed with the tubas’ darkly sullen commentary.
“The Hero’s Deeds of War” was waged lustily and with true grandiosity as Frühbeck (conducting from memory) poured it on, loosing brass, percussion and a hail of artillery. There was dead silence in the hall at the cutoff here, with not a cough or a rustle to be heard.
There was peace, even resignation, in “The Hero’s Retirement from the World,” where Frühbeck coaxed tender moments from the strings, against shards of battle in the brasses.
The concert opened with Beethoven’s “King Stephen” Overture, a little gem written as part of incidental music for a play celebrating Hungary’s great 11th-century king (later canonized). Forgive this reviewer if the main theme has always reminded me of “Shortnin’ Bread.”
The concert repeats at 8 p.m. tonight at Music Hall. Tickets begin at $10. Call (513) 381-3300.