![]() The Seventh moves between quasi-chamber music polyphony and grand collective declamations the strings were unified and balanced, punctuated by walls of stalwart brass and limpid choirs of winds, who were especially polished in the gentle song of the Poco Adagio. For this you need an ensemble with sectional integrity to clarify his detailed orchestrational variations, and the orchestra beneath Payare did not disappoint. Dvorak is, even more than his friend Brahms, at all times melody-driven, and the evolution of melodic character moves us through his structures. ![]() The first movement begins with a miniature, brooding sound - almost as tragic incidental music, before launching into a driving but understated seriousness, the orchestral never really flowering until well after the lyrical second theme. Barnatan impressed with his knowing command of, and service to, this work.ĭvorak’s Seventh Symphony operates in a similar fashion, using our initial mistaken impressions of textures and melodies to make the most of their later versions. The fourth movement Allegro Grazioso keeps with the idea of using extremes of one character to make the most of another: the initial gambit is one of light but menacing mischief, with compartmentalized, episodic melodies, only occasionally giving over to a series of dazzling pianistic ideas - a virtuosity that seems to exist in spite of the character of opening moments. Barnatan made Brahms’ ubiquitous hemiola rhythms sound new, rising to rhapsodic heights, and then receding into spectral pointillism beneath a ghostly wind chorale. The scherzo’s trio section seems borrowed from Beethoven: a giant misfiring hurdy-gurdy, punctuated by horn blasts and disjunct string gestures.īarnatan possesses a virtuosity that can disturb equilibrium, rising suddenly from moments of carefully-crafted tenderness, as in the gentle Andante, with its famous opening cello solo finely played by Yao Zhao. The interplay between Payare and soloist was immediate and palpable, as if the two musicians share an established intimacy. ![]() Surging waves of strings in the scherzo were detailed and powerful beneath Barnatan’s grand chordal calls. Detours into arcadian groves of wind sonority were blended and carefully shaped in the first movement. These contradictions were maximized and celebrated by Payare, Barnatan, and members of the orchestra. ![]()
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