San Antonio Symphony, SLL, Tine Thing Helseth
Dispatches from Vienna
May 10, 2014Vienna, at the crest of its political power and musical glory, was the unifying theme of Friday’s concert by the San Antonio Symphony under music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing.
All the composers on this Majestic Theatre concert were closely associated with Vienna, although only Franz Schubert, represented by his “Great” C Major Symphony of 1826, was born there.
Helseth, was the soloist in the
trumpet concertos of Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk
Hummel. Haydn’s concerto was first perfromed in 1800,
Hummel’s in 1804, the same year that Vienna became
the capital of the Austrian Empire and, arguably, the
capital of Europe.Also at crest in this period was the Industrial Revolution, the effort to extend human capabilities and overcome natural limits through mechanical invention. Vienna wasn’t the leader in that effort – England was — but a Viennese court trumpeter, Anton Weidinger, made a small contribution to it by inventing the keyed trumpet. Prior to that innovation, the natural trumpet was essentially just a long tube, limited to playing the notes of the harmonic series in a single key. Most of the notes of the chromatic scale were unavailable, and figures comprising half-steps could be played only at the top of the instrument’s range. A crook of tubing could be added to allow the trumpet to play in a different key, but Weidinger figured out how to make the full chromatic scale conveniently playable from top to bottom. He drilled holes at strategic points along the tubing and added a key mechanism to open and close the holes, effectively reducing the length of the vibrating air column inside the tube. (The sound was reportedly not very attractive; the keyed trumpet was supplanted in the 19th century by the valved trumpet, Ms. Helseth's instrument.)
The keyed trumpet greatly expanded the range of virtuosity, and the two concertos on this program, both composed specifically for Weidinger and his invention, exploited the new possibilities handsomely. And the Industrial Revolution didn't just play a role on the supply side of virtuosity; it was also implicated in the demand side. Industrialization expanded Europe’s middle class, which increasingly sought out spectacle and amazement.
The concertos on this program offered plenty of opportunities to amaze, especially in the showy finale of the Hummel, and Ms. Helseth’s agility and accuracy proved supremely equal to the task. But there was a lot more to her playing than speed and brilliance. In both the opening allegro and the middle slow movement of the Hummel, her deeply lyrical phrasing approached the operatic. Her Haydn was lively but always highly refined. Her command of color and her feathering of dynamics enabled her instrument to nearly match the human voice in expressiveness, and her sense of rhythm was impeccable. She projected a substantial and assertive tone that was comfortable on the ears.
Mr. Lang-Lessing is a native of Germany, but he has strong sympathies for the Viennese style, exemplified most clearly in the rhythmic bite he brought to the andante of Schubert’s symphony, and the lilt in the scherzo. Carefully crafted details and balances throughout the performance gave evidence of intensive study. The craft may have been a shade too cunning in the scherzo, although its clockwork precision did gain a cumulative power. The finale’s breathless energy won an unusually vigorous round of cheers from the balcony.
Mr. Lang-Lessing stationed the two horns (Jeff Garza and Peter Rubin) offstage for their (flawless) opening statement. Special solo huzzahs are due to oboist Hideaki Okada for his gorgeous work in the andante.
Schubert’s “Great” C Major Symphony, by the way, is most often called the “Great” C Major Symphony in part because people can’t agree whether to call it No. 7, No. 8, or No. 9.
Mike
Greenberg
Tine Thing Helseth
Photo: Colin Bell/EMI Classics