This was not a concert that I had been planning on going to, and I only exchanged into it a day or two beforehand. I've always liked Liadov's The Enchanted Lake, but Kancheli's Styx and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade were pieces I was more skeptical about. My brother has been raving about Scheherazade for the past several weeks, which is why this concert was on my radar at all. Then, after listening to Styx on the Naxos player, I decided this would probably be a very enjoyable concert.
Russian guest conductor Andrey Boreyko had an incredibly distinguished and suave demeanor to him. He came out to conduct the first piece with the gravitas of a Tsar, and he seemed very suited to lead the orchestra in this program of Russian music. The music depicting a pristine, magical body of water floated up into the air. There was a perfect balance between all the instruments in the very delicate orchestration, Baltacigil's solos on the cello were gorgeous, and McGill's leaping octaves above the whole body of sound were golden. I actually wished he hadn't played them in such a staccato manner, but perhaps they were going for depicting little fluttery creatures or fairies floating above the water.
The eight minute piece came to an end all too soon, and then they reset the stage for the Kancheli. Kancheli's terrifying and beautiful piece is about the river Styx, which separates the living world from the dead. It is composed for a full orchestra plus a piano and harpsichord, a solo violist, and full chorus. It creates an incredible world of sound which I can't describe very well in any way here. It's something that has to be experienced. Maxim Rysanov was the guest violist for the solo part, and his haunting strains interweaved with the erie choir voices. Maestro Boreyko did a superb job leading the 100+ musicians through this incredible piece. I'm not very familiar with Kancheli's work or with post-modern music in general, but to me it seemed an exquisite performance, and I think it was. The Seattle Symphony again displayed very high professionalism in their execution of this work. It was fully alive and engaging from beginning to end, and always completely, 100% in sync in the many places throughout the work where it would build to an overwhelmingly loud crescendo and then suddenly cut to almost nothing. There was no hesitation, no disconnect, no miscommunications anywhere. The full impact of Kancheli's terrifying vision was delivered seamlessly.
During intermission Christine and I headed to the Friends Lounge as usual for tea. For the first time they asked to see my membership/donor card before they let us in. I thought that was nice, though I don't think anyone who isn't a donor had gone in there at any of the other concerts that I'd been to. After not too long we made our way back to our seats to take in the famous Scheherazade.
I should mention that the hall was almost full for this concert. I believe it's because of the Scheherazade, but it's still rather unusual for it to be close to full for a concert with none of the greatest composers on the program.
Boreyko again practiced a solid, masterful grip with the orchestra in his conducting of Scheherazade. I do believe now more than ever that the Seattle Symphony has reached the level of the great second tier orchestras of the nation such as the St. Louis Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony. The level of polished, dynamic professionalism emanating from the stage left me wanting nothing at all. By this point I had heard the work maybe a total of two or three times, so I still wasn't that familiar with it, and it still is not a favorite of mine, but I could not help admiring the technical and musical excellence that the orchestra displayed in their performance of it. Alexander Velinzon, the new principal violinist, was impeccable in his solos depicting Scheherazade. His tone was smoother than silk, and his musicality brought to life the beauty and desperation in Scheherazade's repeated attempts to save her life through telling tales to the Sultan. It was always a pleasure when another one of his solos would come along. At times Velinzon, McGill and Baltacigil had solos all at the same time, which gave us a wonderful opportunity to hear three of the new principal hires almost as though in a trio. They sounded fantastic.
I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the piece was the ending. Throughout most of the piece I was really enjoying the incredibly high level of playing from the orchestra, but the music was still not convincing me to go out and buy a recording of it for repeated listenings. However, when we got close to the end, as Velinzon's haunting solos juxtaposed with the motive of the Sultan, this time slowing down and sinking, I was transfixed by the music. I thought to myself that if the whole piece is as great as this, that it will end up being one of my favorites, destined for many repeated listenings.
Velinzon rose higher and higher, finally reaching that harmonic up at the very end of his fingerboard, which shone like a gold star above the orchestra as the piece hauntingly moved further towards its close with a series of chords from the orchestra delaying the inevitable tonic. Again, in a moment of great delicacy like this, the orchestra proved its meddle by maintaining impeccability in its delivery. The piece finally ended and Boreyko and the orchestra got an almost complete standing ovation.
I'm very excited about the next concert we're attending on April 13th. It's the first time we'll be seeing Gerard Schwarz conduct this year. The program is Bruckner's 4th Symphony and Mozart's 9th Piano Concerto!
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