A powerhouse Shostakovich's 10th
Vasily Petrenk is back; impressive debut of pianist Inon Barnatan
Vasily Petrenko, who led memorable concerts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2009 and 2011, is back this weekend, as impressive as ever.
Since his last visit, he was quoted making dismissive comments about female conductors. That made Petrenko seem as unenlightened as former BSO music director and fellow Russian Yuri Temirkanov, who also raised eyebrows for suggesting that women on the podium were distracting.
For Petrenko, chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the timing was particularly bad. His remarks surfaced just before current BSO music director Marin Alsop made history and had a great success in 2013 as the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, a huge annual concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
But Petrenko's subsequent, less widely reported explanation of how his words were misconstrued and/or mistranslated (he had been speaking to a newspaper in Norway, where he is also chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic) cleared the air. His international career has continued to flourish.
This weekend finds him back in front of the BSO, as impressive as ever.
Friday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Petrenko delivered an incisive, searing account of one of Shostakovich's most personal works. The Symphony No. 10, from 1953, is generally considered to be the composer's reflections on the death of Stalin and on the nature of creative life in Soviet Russia. The music can be savored deeply without considering such a scenario, but it's hard not to hear something highly autobiographical here, especially given how Shostakovich inserts his musical motto (formed from four notes corresponding to letters of his name) into the score to such compelling effect.
Petrenko, an un-histrionic presence on the podium, made it easy to savor the structural ingenuity of the piece (how superbly the conductor controlled the first movement's emotional arc), while bringing out the myriad shades of dark and light that give the music its edge.
The BSO's response — deep string tone, prismatic woodwinds, snarling or soaring brass, fearless percussion — recalled its most shining work during Temirkanov's years with the orchestra. Virtuosic articulation, especially in the second movement's crazed dance, was matched throughout by intense, communicative phrasing.
Things clicked particularly well in the third movement's journey from menace to tentative hope and daring. Conductor and orchestra operated on the same galvanizing wavelength to burrow into not just a composer's notes, but also his psyche.
The evening opened with a reasonably forceful, not entirely polished account of Beethoven's “Coriolan” Overture, followed by a first-rate performance of that composer's Piano Concerto No. 3.
Making his BSO debut, Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan offered superior musicality at every turn, starting with the extraordinary array of colors and dynamics he brought to his first measures in the opening movement. The way he phrased the start of the Largo, his delicate touch creating a prayerful effect, likewise proved memorable.
The soloist hardly stinted on power when called for (the cadenzas inspired plenty of bravura), but the lyricism and eloquence gave the performance its extra glow. The ensemble likewise offered sensitive work under Petrenko's watchful eye.
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