The Music City Review

On September 14, 2018 the Nashville Symphony presented a concert that played directly to its primary strengths, both in its ability to reinvigorate existing masterpieces (especially those of the 19^th century) as well as it’s place as the premiere interpreter of contemporary American compositions. The only problem, if it can actually be considered a problem, is that both pieces were so moving that the evening was almost overwhelming.

The concert opened with John Corigliano’s First Symphony (1990). Written to commemorate the devastation of AIDS during the ‘80s, as the composer described during a preconcert lecture that was both informative and moving: it was written for “…my friends – those I had lost and one I was losing.” Indeed, the piece is a virtuosic composition that folds a programmatic narrative with aleatory elements into a traditional four movement form. Those four movement simultaneously fit into a first movement sonata allegro form complete with a recapitulative reprise—an accomplishment that was only really convincingly achieved by Beethoven in his 9^th Symphony and Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasy.

So much of the performance was riveting, including the ferocious opening gesture, the animated Tarantella depicting a decline of sanity, and the quoted piano transcription of Isaac Albéniz’s Tango. However, for me, the most powerful moment was the slow third movement’s Chaconne, whose theme was adopted from a transcript of a tape that Corigliano made of his improvisations with a cellist friend who had died. Soon, a second cello line enters depicting the fact that not only had his cellist friend been taken by this plague, but his teacher too. The parts, played with great lyricism by Nashville Cellists Kevin Bate and Xiao-Fan Zhang, were wonderful. And the reprise, including the great musical waves of the final movement, were perfectly balanced and measured, bringing the amazing musical relationship the orchestra has with Guerrero to the fore. It was a wonderful first half and intermission felt otherworldly.

When Brahm’s finished his Second Concerto for Piano (Op. 83) he told a friend that he had written a “…tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo,” when nothing could have been further from the truth. Indeed, the work is on an epic scale taking an estimated 50 minutes to perform (Beethoven’s Emperor averages at 40). It is given in four movements like that of a symphony and the thematic rhetoric of the work is much more symphonic in conception. It lacks many of the structural articulations that one expects of a concerto form, and those that it does have seem misplaced.

For example, the only real cadenza in the work happens in the first few bars, following an opening solo statement of the primary theme from the horn. From this moment on the piano is so tightly woven into the cloth of the symphonic texture that the part seems to compete with itself as a solo part, as an obbligato or even as just another member of the orchestra. In performance it not only demands an incredible level of technical stamina and fluent artistry, but also an intellectual rigor in order to facilitate an estimable interpretation. On Friday, Emanuel Ax was up to the task. His eloquence was remarkable from that opening cadenza to the final bars.

This is one of the most difficult pieces in the piano’s repertoire and Ax seemed to enjoy it. His interpretation of the rushing scherzo seemed for moments to not just accompany, but carry the orchestra through Brahms’ compositionally virtuosic whirlwind. Maestro Guerrero, who has worked with Ax in Nashville before, was very nuanced in his steerage of the orchestra, maintaining a synergy throughout. In my opinion, the highlight of the second half was the finale with its incredible onslaught of new themes, one after the other, which Ax performed with an amazing balance of interpretive clarity and anxious enthusiasm.

As I stepped past the new bust of the Maestro in the foyer and exited the Schermerhorn I remember thinking of the embarrassment of riches I had just enjoyed and how lucky I am to live in Music City. The Nashville Symphony returns on October 4-7 with John Adams Harmonielehre and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto performed by James Ehnes.

Last Saturday, September 8th, at the opening of the 2018-19 season and the tenth year of Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero’s tenure, the Nashville Symphony revealed a bronze sculpture of its prized conductor. The sculpture, commissioned from artist Alici

Ponzio of the Hayne’s Gallery, resides now in the foyer of Schermerhorn and serves as a a wonderful welcome to people as they arrive into the hall. At the reception and reveal it was delightful to see the Maestro positively, and humbly, beam at all of the attention, but then look quizzically at the bust. Considering that Guerrero is a Grammy award winning conductor and champion of American classical music, the fact that the following performance was an evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s life seemed perfectly appropriate.

The evening opened with Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town. Arranged from the composer’s first show of the same name, the work is an excellent example of Bernstein’s adaptation of the blues for the symphonic stage. The range of events, from the excitement of a celebration in Times Square to a contrasting darker central section which the composer himself described as: “…both tender and sinister, in which a sensitive high-school girl in Central Park is lured and then cast off by a worldly sailor” make for a very exciting piece, and the Symphony stepped up to the challenge with a performance that was equal parts exciting and moving. Special mention goes to the saxophone solos performed by Don Aliquo. Similarly, the Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront frames a central intimate section depicting a pair of lovers with an aggressive depiction of urban reality. As Maestro Guererro stated in at the beginning, these are all pieces everyone knows, and the smiles from the audience at intermission said as much.

Indeed, after intermission, the Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” was the one work I was not acquainted with before the concert. Begun after his graduation from Harvard in 1939 as a single movement work as a setting of Hebrew excerpts from The Book of Lamentations, in 1942 Bernstein decided to expend it into a larger symphonic work with two preceding movements. Jeremiah, a Hebrew Prophet who foresaw the destruction of the Temple, his lamentations depict the isolation of the Hebrew nation after this catastrophe. Indeed, Bernstein described it as: the third movement “…is the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it.” In this mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke performed with a tragic clarity and sorrowful warmth that marked this movement and the best of the evening.

Like the two pieces from before intermission, Guerrero arranged the evening with an inner intimate movement (the Symphony) framed by exciting a bawdy outer pieces. This concert closed with a rousing rendition of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. All sections performed wonderfully, and the exciting shout of “mambo” brought chills. From the intimacy of “Somewhere” to the excitement of the “Rumble” this work made the expressive strengths of our hometown ensemble clear, all further exemplified by the encore performance of the overture to Candide. In all it was a great season opener from the NSO, and it looks like it is going to be a great year. The season continues next weekend with a performance of the rarely heard first Symphony by John Corigliano and Emanuel Ax’s return to Nashville to perform Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto.