Karina Canellakis returned to Tanglewood to lead a program of contrasts with the German School – Beethoven and Brahms – taking up the first half before the French in the second, Chausson and Ravel with James Ehnes as violin soloist.
Karina Canellakis conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra
© Hilary Scott, courtesy of the BSO
The Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus functioned the way it often did at Beethoven’s own concerts, as a colorful and high-spirited curtain raiser. Canellakis’ sequence of razor sharp chords at the outset set in motion a svelte, light-footed performance propelled by an ever tauter rhythmic drive. Only a few additional players were required for the segue to Brahms’ Song of Destinybut the lack of two seats in the viola section provided a brief moment of musical chairs levity as they and then, finally, two scores were brought on. All was quickly eclipsed by the nimbus of light in sound the Tanglewood Festival Chorus emitted, wafted on the “shimmering divine breezes” Canellakis coaxed from the orchestra. If flights of angels are truly meant to sing us to our rest, then they should sound like this. A roiling, restless reeling quality drove the grievances of a suffering humanity pummeled to exhaustion. The serenity and repose with which Canellakis infused the return of the Elysian introduction provided some balm to close.
Eugène Ysaÿe, for whom Chausson composed his Poème for violin and orchestraonce wrote that mastering virtuoso techniques both for bowing and the left hand was indispensable for “the spirit to express itself without restraint”. So he did not shy away from virtuosity in his own compositions or, in the Poem’s case, from adding it in the form of formidable flurries of double-stopping. Ehnes, who has studied and mastered Ysaÿe’s sonatas which are a minefield of similar challenges, had no trouble meeting those of the Poem. His playing was technically secure and expressive, its rapt delicacy and autumnal timbre reflecting the shifting moods and spirit of melancholy and introspection which run through the work’s 15 minutes. His dynamics ranged from soft to softest, drawing the listener in. Canellakis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were alert and sensitive interlocutors, helping create this chamber-like intimacy. Ehnes closed with a poignant dissolve of dying trills.
James Ehnes, Karina Canellakis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
© Hilary Scott, courtesy of the BSO
The spirit of Ravel’s Gypsy is virtuosity itself with its series of variations putting violinists through their paces right from the opening cadenza. Winking at the genre of the Hungarian rhapsody itself, Ravel created a “fiery a blitz of passion”, as a reviewer of the Paris premiere put it, which Ehnes, Canellakis and the orchestra dashed off with élan.
The composer’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite no. 2 closed out the evening on a note of cathartic abandon showcasing Canellakis’ mastery of the color palette and dramatic arc of the ballet’s final scene. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus’ contribution added to the powerful punch of the General dance as Canellakis built waves of sound which broke with increasing intensity approaching the closing measures.
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