United States Coleridge-Taylor, Price, Dvořák: Curtis Symphony Orchestra / Benoit Gauthier and Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductors). David Geffen Hall, New York, 24.11.2024. (RP)
Coleridge-Taylor – Ballade in A minor, Op.33
Price – Symphony No.1 in E minor
Dvořák – Symphony No.8 in G major, Op.88
It is no exaggeration to describe the Curtis Institute of Music on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia as a beacon of excellence. That was the goal of Mary Louise Curtis Bok, heir to a publishing fortune, when she opened the school in 1924. Since it was founded, Curtis has trained the most talented, aspiring young musicians on a 100% scholarship basis.
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra contributed to the anniversary celebration with its first concert ever in Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has served on the faculty as mentor conductor since 2013, was on the podium for most of the concert. He shared duties with Benoit Gauthier, a conducting fellow at Curtis who studies with him.
The only considerations for admission to Curtis are talent and artistic promise, and only four percent of applicants get admitted each year. The current student body numbers 160 students with a student-to-faculty ratio of 4:3. Among the ranks of the conservatory’s graduates are superstars of the music world past and present, including Leonard Bernstein, Ray Chen, Juan Diego Flórez, Lang Lang, Anna Moffo, Eric Owens and Yuja Wang. The members of the faculty are just as renowned, and many of them are Curtis alums.
The programming for the concert could have gone any number of ways. An obvious choice would have been to feature works by noteworthy composer alums, including Samuel Barber, Jennifer Higdon, Gian Carlo Menotti and Ned Rorem as well as \Leonard Bernstein. Any number of illustrious alums could likewise have appeared as soloists. Nézet-Séguin took another route, focusing solely on the orchestra in a somewhat eclectic program. From the smiles on the faces of many of the orchestra members, it was a lot of fun to play.
Gauthier conducted the first work, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor. Coleridge-Taylor had studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford and found a supporter in Edward Elgar. The budding composer was only twenty-three and had recently graduated from London’s Royal College of Music when he wrote the Ballade, which found immediate popularity with British audiences.
The Ballade is youthful, zestful and full of exciting flourishes and tender melodies. Coleridge-Taylor’s brilliant orchestral colors and rich, sensual melodies were the perfect vehicles for Gauthier and the orchestra. Gauthier has an economical conducting style, and he used clear, precise gestures to communicate his intentions to the orchestra. Little more was required from him as drama and excitement were on hand from the start, especially from the Curtis woodwinds and brass. The string playing was lush and sensual, perfect for Coleridge-Taylor’s sweeping melodies.
Nézet-Séguin bounded onto the stage with his usual energy to conduct the orchestra in Florence Price’s Symphony No.1 in E minor. Price was in her mid-forties when she began composing large orchestral works, and her first effort was a success. When her Symphony No.1 was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1932, it became the first symphony by a Black woman composer to be programmed by a major American orchestra.
The music is colorful and, for the times, exotic. Dvořák was a major influence on Price, and she paid tribute to him in the symphony’s first movement with a spaciousness of sound that evokes his ‘New World’ Symphony. The vibrancy of Nézet-Séguin’s reading was further enlivened by fine work from the woodwinds, especially the solo flute and bassoon. In the second movement, the Curtis brass players sounded magnificent in the chorale tune. There was fine work too from the woodwinds, especially by the solo flute and bassoon.
Price drew upon an African-inspired folk tune to create a lively dance in which the Curtis strings and trumpets added excitement and drama through their rhythmically fueled playing. Nézet-Séguin mined the tension in a blues-and-jazz-tinged finale that culminated in a frenzy of excitement in electrifying slashes of sound.
More orchestral color and excitement followed the intermission in Dvořák’s Symphony No.8. Nézet-Séguin and exuberance are synonymous, but this performance was not all about bold and loud. Some hairpin dynamic turns demonstrated his command over the orchestra, as well as the players’ capacity to create fascinating, transparent textures at any volume.
It is a critic’s lot not to see every performer on the stage, but two that were easily identifiable were concertmaster I-hao Cheng and flutist Julin Cheung. The Taiwanese-born violinist played with passion and style which, combined with the superb sound he drew from his instrument, was riveting to watch and to hear. Julin Cheung is from Seattle and was recently named Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. There is a wow factor to his playing that commands attention.
Rick Perdian