United States Tanglewood Festival 2024 [11]: Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox, 10 & 11.8.2024. (ES-S)
It was a busy weekend in the Koussevitzky Shed at the Tanglewood Festival. Following a rainy Friday night performance with conductor Alan Gilbert and pianist Kirill Gerstein (review here), two additional performances under clear skies showcased the debut appearances of Dalia Stasevska and of James Gaffigan leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Three different conductors guiding challenging programs over three consecutive days – certainly no easy feat for the BSO instrumentalists!
While listening to the entire four minutes of the ‘Canzonetta’ that Sibelius extracted in 1911 from his incidental music to the symbolist drama Kuolema, it was difficult to grasp why Stravinsky felt compelled to orchestrate the piece for a chamber ensemble of two clarinets, four horns, harp and double bass. Perhaps the urge was partly driven by his need to respond to the honor of being awarded the Wihuri-Sibelius Prize in 1963. Nevertheless, as a prologue to a Sibelius-Stravinsky program, the modest work, even augmented with a Stravinskian sound, did not leave a strong impression. Additionally, the melancholic piece suffered from a lack of precision in the BSO hornists’ playing.
Leila Josefowicz, a distinguished interpreter and advocate for new music, who has premiered works by composers such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Luca Francesconi, John Adams and Steven Mackey, brought a contemporary perspective to Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D. Despite the concerto being conceived over eight decades ago, she ensured that the work never betrayed its age.
From her initial entrance in the Toccata, where she engaged in a playful, fractured dialogue with various sections of the orchestra, to the frenetic Capriccio finale, the violinist maintained an unwavering level of energy throughout the work. She approached the fiercely challenging passages with a mischievous grin and flawless technique. Even in the more introspective inner movements, a sense of irony prevailed, though the second Aria was imbued with warmth and a touch of mystery.
Collaborating seamlessly with Josefowicz, Dalia Stasevska was instrumental in highlighting the overall ludic nature of a score in which Stravinsky explored new directions with humor and inventiveness while honoring traditional forms.
The highlight of the evening – indeed, of the entire weekend – was Stasevska’s rendition of Sibelius’s Symphony No.5. Born in Kyiv and relocating to Finland with her family at the age of five, Stasevska’s early immersion in Finnish culture fostered a deep affinity for Sibelius’s music. She succeeded in bringing forward the composer’s distinct voice, anchored in lush late-Romantic harmonies, and continuously evolving structures that flowed seamlessly into one another. The BSO instrumentalists, in excellent form, helped her to render the music without a hint of bombast, constantly drawing attention to the intricate details woven into the fabric and the colorful undercurrents that animate it. Smiling and using exuberant gestures, she explored the soundscape’s vistas and foggy nooks with the delight of a child retelling a beloved story.
With its lighter, more transparent orchestration, Mahler’s Symphony No.4 – the shortest of all – is often paired, for good reason, with a Mozartean work. Nevertheless, James Gaffigan opened his Tanglewood debut with the BSO by interpreting Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury (2019), a piece less fitting within the Mozart/Mahler Fourth paradigm.
Like other works by Clyne, the music responds to external stimuli. According to the composer, the primary one was Haydn’s Symphony No.60, nicknamed ‘Il Distratto’. While Sound and Fury is in one movement, it comprises six subsections, corresponding to the unusual six-part structure of the Haydn symphony. Clyne selected a ‘key element’ from each part of the Haydn, using it as a kernel for her own explorations. Haydn’s explicit humor also served as a source of inspiration, with an evident quote from Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra intended as a Haydnesque joke.
Another stimulus was Macbeth’s famous soliloquy, which gives the work its title. As Clyne noted in her reflections, it was not necessarily chosen for its pessimistic outlook on the meaninglessness of life, but rather for its direct reference to the passage of time and ‘the rhythmic use of language’. However, hearing the Shakespearean lines over the loudspeakers did seem somewhat unusual.
A quite prolix composition, traversing multiple landscapes and weaving references to the old masters with a contemporary idiom, Clyne’s Sound and Fury received well-deserved attention from Gaffigan and the orchestra, with percussionist J. William Hudgins notably making his mark on the xylophone.
James Gaffigan, a distinguished opera conductor, provided exquisite accompaniment to the promising soprano Elena Villalón in two Mozart arias: ‘Padre, germani, addio!’ from Idomeneo and ‘Deh vieni, non tardar’ from Le nozze di Figaro. As she gained confidence, Villalón, the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner, showcased a warm, glowing voice with impressive range and legato. With great stage presence though a little overacting, her portrayal of Susanna’s longing and expectations was deeply emotive.
Villalón also demonstrated her remarkable musicality and excellent German diction as the soloist in Mahler’s ‘Das himmlische Leben’, based on a text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of folk poetry. Her interpretation of the song, which concludes Mahler’s Symphony No.4, highlighted her ability to seamlessly blend the serene and solemn depiction of heaven’s wonders with moments of typical Mahlerian irony, in perfect harmony with Gaffigan and the orchestra.
The conductor highlighted the transparency and gentleness of the composer’s writing while embracing the powerful outbursts and ever-shifting rhythms. The Adagio, with its tranquil melody introduced by the lower strings and gradually unfolding through variations interrupted by laments, was beautifully calibrated. The Scherzo featured BSO’s excellent associate concertmaster Alexander Velinzon on the discordant solo violin. The portrayal of the medieval ‘Freund Hein’ (or Death) insouciantly dancing on the precipice of an abyss would have benefited from a more contrasting approach. Overall, while Gaffigan succeeded in bringing the multitude of threads into a consolidated knot, the rendition, alas, was not necessarily a conduit for new interpretative ideas.
Edward Sava-Segal
10.8.2024 – Leila Josefowicz (violin), Boston Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska (conductor).
Sibelius – ‘Canzonetta’, Op.62a, from the incidental music for Kuolema (arr. Stravinsky); Symphony No.5 in E-flat, Op.82
Stravinsky – Violin Concerto in D
11.8.24 – Elena Villalón (soprano), Boston Symphony Orchestra / James Gaffigan (conductor).
Anna Clyne – Sound and Fury
Mozart – ‘Padre, germani, addio!’ from Idomeneo, K.366; ‘Deh vieni, non tardar’ from Le nozze di Figaro, K.492
Mahler – Symphony No.4 in G