Music Review

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - Tchaikovsky Festival

Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 6

Conductor: Roberto Minczuk

Violinist: Mayuko Kamio

Music Historian: Kenneth DeLong

Review by: Tiffany Sostar (Calgary)

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra always offers an enjoyable musical evening. However, some evenings exceed expectations, and their performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 6 was one such evening.

Mayuko Kamio is one of the world’s most talented violinists, and her performance during the CPO’s Tchaikovsky Festival was absolutely stunning. Her skill and confidence, as well as her clear emotional connection to the music was spellbinding. She has the ability to transition cleanly and smoothly between solos and full orchestral moments, and her interaction with conductor Roberto Minczuk seemed effortless. There seemed to be a real respect and mutual admiration between the two, and they worked together beautifully.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto was a controversial piece when it first debuted, and it’s easy to see why critics might have a negative initial reaction to the mercurial piece.

The first movement begins with a moving and lyrical stretch of musical genius; it draws the listener in to the rich, seductive sounds.

Then, distress.

The movement becomes chaotic and, in the words of one of the piece’s most vehement critics, “brutal and wretched.” However, this negative reaction is shortsighted and a reflection of the critics’ own inability to handle the complexity of the piece. The true genius of this concerto is that it conveys both the beauty and the pain that constantly surrounds us. More than almost any other composer, Tchaikovsky put that inner conflict and pain, as well as the moments of transcendent beauty, into his work. Tchaikovsky forces the listener to face both the painful and the beautiful, to reflect on both, more in this concerto than in any of his other work. For that reason, the concerto has become and will remain a concert favorite.

The orchestra did a fantastic job as well. During the final “chase” scene, when the violin leads the orchestra through a playful and sometimes frantic series of notes they were absorbed in the spirit of the piece and kept up with Mayuko Kamio’s brilliant lead without missing a beat.

On a note unrelated to the music, Mayuko Kamio was stunning in more than just her skill with the violin. Her dress was gorgeous, a perfect complement to the performance.

The second part of the performance was Tchaikovsky’s final Symphony, the beautiful and incredibly moving “Pathetique.” This symphony was only performed once during Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, and he was dead nine days later.

The symphony has four movements, and Kenneth DeLong gave the audience some valuable insight into how it is meant to play in his pre-concert informational talk. The third movement ends on a glorious, blazing high note, and the audience want to burst into applause. It is triumphant, joyful, powerful. But Tchaikovsky wrote the fourth movement to begin immediately after the third, so that the eruption of applause is cut short by the introduction of the slow, agonized finale. In the final movement, the fate which has dogged Tchaikovsky (and his listeners) through his last three symphonies finally wins. Kenneth DeLong challenged the CPO to deny the audience the ability to applaud, to push us immediately from the heights of triumph to the depths of bitter resignation.

However, it was too much. The third movement ends on such an incredible high note that there was no way to avoid the pause and the surge of applause that filled it. The challenge was too great, the audience too insistent, and the moment too powerful for the orchestra to be denied a moment to savour it.

Conductor Roberto Minczuk let us rejoice for a moment (perhaps a moment too long?) and then quickly began the fourth and final movement.

After the third movement, it is difficult to listen to the pain in the finale. Challenging for the audience, it must be even more challenging for the orchestra to suddenly shift gears so dramatically and to end the symphony in quiet defeat rather than the euphoric triumph of the third movement. The orchestra did a fantastic job of shifting with the piece, and Roberto Minczuk held both the orchestra and the audience in an endless moment of silence after the final note faded away. It was powerful, emotional and reflective, a cathartic end to the symphony that marked the end of the great composer’s life.

Written by :

tasostar

 

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written by richard.l.lam, March 08, 2010

Great review, Tiffany! I caught that show too, it was amazing. Missed the pre-talk though.

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