San Antonio Symphony, Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Romantic start to a new marriage
January 9, 2011After a whirlwind courtship in 2009 and a thrilling honeymoon this past October, the San Antonio Symphony and its new music director, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, settled into the routine of marriage on Jan. 7 with their first subscription concert as a wedded couple. Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” helped fill the Majestic Theater’s seats, and two of Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems, “Mazeppa” and “Les Preludes,” had the audience jumping excitedly out of them.
Liszt was a hugely popular and, by all accounts, hugely virtuosic pianist, the leading rock star of the 1840s in Europe. He also was an innovative composer who loosened (but did not wholly demolish) the constraints of classical structure and, somewhat like his older contemporary Hector Berlioz, often drew inspiration from literary sources. All the tendencies of the Romantic movement found extreme expression in his music -- the ideals of freedom and individualism, the love of nature, a fixation on the spiritual, rejection of established power, an expansiveness that can cross the line into bombast.
“Les Preludes” is the most familiar of Liszt's 13 symphonic poems, thanks in part to the use of some fragments of the score in the Flash Gordon movie serials of the 1930s. It’s marvelously constructed, noble and philosophical in feeling. “Mazeppa,” based on a poem by Victor Hugo, evokes the titular hero’s involuntary ride on horseback, his leadership of the Cossacks and their triumph over Peter the Great of Russia. Compared to “Les Preludes,” its structure is more linear and its thematic development less interesting, but its opening section opens wide the adrenalin spigots of its listeners.
In both, Lang-Lessing and the orchestra gave vivid expression to the theatrical effects. “Les Preludes” was lovingly shaped. For the wild ride that opens “Mazeppa,” Lang-Lessing chose a very fast tempo -- a bit too fast for the string sections, which couldn’t render the flying hooves (roller-coaster triplets) cleanly enough. The conductor impressed with his sense of line and continuity, and his careful balances, throughout the concert. He struck a particularly happy balance in Dvorak -- warmth without heaviness -- and supple tempo play gave that music a consistently clear and lively sense of direction.
Excellent solo and section work abounded. Principal English horn Stephanie Shapiro played Dvorak’s “Going Home” theme with uncommon soulfulness. Principal oboe Mark Ackerman projected gorgeous tone in “Les Preludes.” The cello section shone in all of its turns in the foreground, as did the brass in “Mazeppa.”
Marriage, of course, is a long process of discovery and accommodation, and it is neither surprising nor troubling that ensemble precision fell a notch or two below Lang-Lessing’s previous appearances. It will take a while for the orchestra to become fully comfortable with its new driver, and he with it.
Nonetheless, an encore, Dvorak's Slavonic Dance in G Minor, came off very crisply indeed.
Mike
Greenberg
