Review: Ward Stare has bold start to career at RPO
A new era of orchestral music locally began on Thursday as Ward Stare took the podium for the first time as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's 12th music director.
This opening concert, which repeats Saturday night, was as good as Rochester classical music fans could expect from the 32-year-old conductor and a good indicator of the type of sound he might elicit from the ensemble for years to come.
The evening began with the "Overture" from Hector Berlioz's opera Beatrice and Benedict, in which limber musical motives created ecstatic sonic moods. Stare seemed to have an innate ability to cultivate an atmosphere that is both fully evocative and aesthetically generous, while remaining self-possessed and in control.
With Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major, Stare's tempered approach to conducting enabled the musical narrative to be told at its most natural pace, with supreme sensitivity to softer dynamics, the denouement of dramatic moments in the melody and the cultivation of a rich harmonic blend.
As soloist, the celebrated violinist Midori gave a performance that was completely devoid of ego and self-promotion, instead tapping into the inherent genius of the composer's engaging themes and mining the virtuosity that is so prevalent in the music itself. It was as if Midori had found a safe haven of creative expression within the voice of her violin and was able to communicate most honestly and earnestly.
The result was a collaborative performance that made the music all the more arresting.
During the concerto's first movement, Stare and company propelled themselves through the seemingly inexhaustible flow of full-bodied harmonies. The synchronicity — both rhythmically and emotionally — between soloist and conductor was truly compelling and enabled the music to sing in a way that would have been otherwise impossible.
During the more tranquil second movement, Midori's and Stare's joint interpretation of the music was especially tender and precise. And while it would have been easy for Stare to overcompensate for the lush Romanticism of the harmonic language with a heavy-handed baton, matching the music's intensity, he clearly recognized that a more nuanced approach to style would yield a more three-dimensional musical result.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor closed the concert. Like the Brahms concerto, this work is dominated by swirling melodies that undulate through phrases with a passion and brio that is nothing short of hypnotic.
Stare repeatedly succeeded in elongating phrases by connecting the melodies of one instrument family to another and another, with an intuitive fluidity that can't be taught. His musical direction here was characterized most sharply by a mastery of transitions in the musical mood, injecting more urgency into the performance. The RPO, at least in recent concerts, has responded best to a conductor with indefatigable energy and intellectual drive, demonstrated here again with the partnership between maestro and ensemble. The oneness of the group was unwavering, the intonation was alluring and the blend of sounds was in excellent proportion.
The sumptuous and languid melodies of the second movement to strings' pizzicato intrigue; the lean, emphatic sound of the brass in the third movement; the grand, monolithic solemnity of the symphony's recurring fanfare theme: all were signs that the RPO will likely benefit immensely from the consistency of Stare's stylistic approach — a sophisticated combination of subtle substance and sensual melodicism.
Stare also will conduct the second concert in the Philharmonic series on Oct. 2 and 4, with works by Saint-Saens, Beethoven and Berlioz and a superstar guest in pianist Jeremy Denk.
Kushner is a Rochester-based freelance writer.
If you go
What: Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductor Ward Stare and violinist Midori.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.
Cost: $16 to $94; $10 for students.
For tickets: (585) 454-2100 or rpo.org.