CSO Closes Its Season with Scenes from the Bard
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra took some lines
from Shakespeare Friday morning at Music Hall.
And not just lines of music -- though that was served spectacularly well by excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet.” Led by guest conductor James Gaffigan, the CSO has rarely yielded such a vibrant tapestry, as vivid (if not more so) than Shakespeare’s words. Accompanying their performance were mini-scenes from the play by students of the drama department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Taken together, it was a mesmerizing experience.
The concert as a whole, final concert of the 2013-2014 Music Hall season, had a British Isles cast. Also on the program were Max Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy” for Violin and Orchestra and yet another Shakespeare inspiration, Hector Berlioz’ “King Lear” Overture. Soloist in the Bruch was violinist Nicola Benedetti.
A violin concerto in all but name,
Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy” utilizes Scottish folk themes. Each of the four
movements is built on a different one (“Auld Rob Morris,” ‘The Dusty Miller,”
“I’m Down for Lack of Johnnie” and “Scots Wha Hae”). With a prominent part
allocated to the harp -- played here by the CSO’s Gillian Benet Sella -- you
could almost envision tartans, thistles and fields of heather. From the brooding
introduction to the exuberant “fiddling” and evocative themes heard throughout,
Benedetti gave it a bewitching performance, full of virtuosity and warm expression.
Sella, who was positioned at the front of the stage to Benedetti’s left,
provided a glittering, idiomatic accompaniment.
Actors Connor Lawrence as Romeo, Bailie Breaux as Juliet and Keisha Kemper as the Chorus and the Prince enhanced Prokofiev’s music without getting in the way. The CSO performed seven excerpts, from his Suites No. 1, 2 and 3, giving it a precise dramatic line. Kemper opened, unaccompanied by the CSO, with verses from the Prologue about the “star-crossed lovers” who “with their death bury their parents’ strife.” Gaffigan, leading completely from memory, then launched into the “Montagues and the Capulets,” giving it a relentless swagger, broken only by Prokofiev’s arch counter-theme. You could hear the patter of little feet in “The Child Juliet,” while “Masks” unfolded march-like and sardonic.
Lawrence and Breaux, dressed in street clothes, preceded “Romeo and Juliet” (from suite No. 1) with a charming love scene from act I of the play, involving the couple’s first kiss (”You kiss by the book,” says Juliet delightedly). They did not return until the last excerpt, “The Death of Juliet,” which they preceded with a heart-rending performance of the lovers’ dying moments from act V. Gaffigan and the CSO took their cue from Juliet’s thrust of the dagger, rending the scene with climactic, riveting emotion. Kemper closed with the Prince’s immortal words “Never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
Gaffigan opened with Berlioz’ infrequently heard “King Lear” Overture (its last CSO outing was in 1988). It is a score filled with drama and received a performance to match, including a fine solo by oboist Lon Bussell in the slow introduction and big, bold brass at the end.
The concert (last of the CSO season) repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall. Tickets begin at $12. Call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.cincinnatisymphony.com