Just before traveling for the holidays, almost literally along the way, I managed to catch the Chicago Symphony at Orchestra Hall in this program:
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Christopher Rouse: Heimdall's Trumpet (world premiere performances)
Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony (**)
(** More or less; explanation follows)
Given how often Jaap van Zweden has been guest-conducting the CSO for the past few seasons, I wonder if the CSO management is thinking ahead, but from the (very poker-faced) looks of the musicians on stage, I also wonder what they think. That aside, this was a program where I was hearing all the works live for the first time. That the Rouse was new is a given, of course, but it was a surprise to read that the DSCH has never been done on subscription in Chicago, and the Manfred Symphony hadn't been played in Orchestra Hall since 1983.
The DSCH is obviously music to be heard without thinking too much, just basically turning on the orchestra and letting them rip. In the new Rouse concerto, CSO principal trumpet did an excellent job, and the trumpet writing was actually quite mellifluous and well-crafted. The piece as a whole was a bit rhapsodic, but nice enough. It'll be interesting to see if it gets further performances outside of Chicago, perhaps in Baltimore at some point (the most likely place for a second round of performances).
About the Tchaikovsky and the (**) part: the program note stated that the version used in this performance is a version prepared by Evgeny Svetlanov that trims the finale, and reprises the coda of the 1st movement in place of Tchaikovsky's own ending, with organ and all that good stuff. The program note tries to justify this change by saying that the changes are more in keeping with Byron's original. In practice, however, for me at least, the changes didn't work. I would have been quite happy to hear Tchaikovsky's own ending, if only because Tchaikovsky would not simply have repeated the coda from the 1st movement unchanged in the 4th, but mainly because it's not what he wrote. I'd have to listen to one of my recordings to see how much actually got cut in performance, but I have the sense that those "Svetlanov cuts" weren't made, and the 1st movement coda was simply pasted over at the end. The more cynical reason for the CSO doing this might also have been that they avoided having to hire an organist for the evening.
Having said that, the Tchaikovsky was enjoyable enough, well paced, and a treat overall, until that very end. Perhaps the scherzo didn't quite have the light-as-gossamer feel that it should ideally have, but I think that this is the fault of the Orchestra Hall acoustic as much as anything. The hall acoustic has never flattered the string section well, IMHO, but this was one of the richer string section sounds I've ever heard from the CSO. The horn section was also on very fine form, perhaps because Dale Clevenger took the night off and Daniel Gingrich appeared to be leader of the pack there. So ultimately, I'm still waiting to hear Manfred live, as Tchaikovsky wrote it, for the first time. But for now, this will do.
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Christopher Rouse: Heimdall's Trumpet (world premiere performances)
Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony (**)
(** More or less; explanation follows)
Given how often Jaap van Zweden has been guest-conducting the CSO for the past few seasons, I wonder if the CSO management is thinking ahead, but from the (very poker-faced) looks of the musicians on stage, I also wonder what they think. That aside, this was a program where I was hearing all the works live for the first time. That the Rouse was new is a given, of course, but it was a surprise to read that the DSCH has never been done on subscription in Chicago, and the Manfred Symphony hadn't been played in Orchestra Hall since 1983.
The DSCH is obviously music to be heard without thinking too much, just basically turning on the orchestra and letting them rip. In the new Rouse concerto, CSO principal trumpet did an excellent job, and the trumpet writing was actually quite mellifluous and well-crafted. The piece as a whole was a bit rhapsodic, but nice enough. It'll be interesting to see if it gets further performances outside of Chicago, perhaps in Baltimore at some point (the most likely place for a second round of performances).
About the Tchaikovsky and the (**) part: the program note stated that the version used in this performance is a version prepared by Evgeny Svetlanov that trims the finale, and reprises the coda of the 1st movement in place of Tchaikovsky's own ending, with organ and all that good stuff. The program note tries to justify this change by saying that the changes are more in keeping with Byron's original. In practice, however, for me at least, the changes didn't work. I would have been quite happy to hear Tchaikovsky's own ending, if only because Tchaikovsky would not simply have repeated the coda from the 1st movement unchanged in the 4th, but mainly because it's not what he wrote. I'd have to listen to one of my recordings to see how much actually got cut in performance, but I have the sense that those "Svetlanov cuts" weren't made, and the 1st movement coda was simply pasted over at the end. The more cynical reason for the CSO doing this might also have been that they avoided having to hire an organist for the evening.
Having said that, the Tchaikovsky was enjoyable enough, well paced, and a treat overall, until that very end. Perhaps the scherzo didn't quite have the light-as-gossamer feel that it should ideally have, but I think that this is the fault of the Orchestra Hall acoustic as much as anything. The hall acoustic has never flattered the string section well, IMHO, but this was one of the richer string section sounds I've ever heard from the CSO. The horn section was also on very fine form, perhaps because Dale Clevenger took the night off and Daniel Gingrich appeared to be leader of the pack there. So ultimately, I'm still waiting to hear Manfred live, as Tchaikovsky wrote it, for the first time. But for now, this will do.
I somehow couldn't concentrate on it ... instead I counted the people under 50 in the audience - 14; actually a high number, though I suspect 5 of them were music students that got in there for free. All in all the audience turnout was abysmal. They could have put everyone in the gallery and used the stalls for ballett dancing after clearing away the seats. 
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