Houston Symphony Orchestra– 03/29/24

Friday evening was the first of three performances at Jones Hall with guest conductor Xian Zhang. Principal Cello Brinton Averil Smith was soloist in the Cello Concerto in B minor by Antonín Dvořák. The program began with  “Northern Star” by Dorothy Chang and concluded with selections from Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet.

Written in 2017, “Northern Star” was commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as the fourth movement of the True North Symphonic Ballet project, a large-scale four movement work written by four composers. As the composer writes in the program– “Beginning from a place of darkness in the aftermath of war and destruction, the work centers around the northern star as the shining light that illuminates our way back to humanity.” The music clearly represents the composer’s description. It begins with a brief quote of the beginning of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, then immediately falls into disjointed note fragments, gestures, and note clusters. These slowly take shape into melodic fragments and loosely structured chords, eventually making a crescendo to an orchestral unison note A. This represents the north star providing singularity of purpose to humanity. The overall effect is compelling. Conductor Zhang led the work ably but in an excessively animated manner.

Dvořák’s cello concerto is the greatest cello concerto and ranks among the greatest concertos for any instrument. It was afforded a stellar performance by the symphony’s principal cello Brinton Smith. Highly respected for his playing, teaching, and sense of ethics, Brinton has reverence for musical tradition including the great players of the past. He brought this aesthetic to his performance Friday evening. His use of color, vibrato, and shifting evoked a less ‘modern’ (read aggressive) time while maintaining the current technical standards of technique and intonation. Any slight flaws were negligible given the context of expression. His sound is uniquely beautiful but not overly great in volume. It brought to mind a performance I heard of this work with Janos Starker and The Cleveland Orchestra. That performance was conducted by someone well known in the early music field but who was not sufficiently familiar with the concerto. There were parallels with the conductor this evening. Even with a greatly reduced string section of 10-8-6-6-4, the balance was not always ideal. There were also issues of ensemble easily avoided with adequate visual collaboration. Brinton was clear enough to be followed from the Upper Tier, but Zhang rarely, if ever, turned to look at him in critical places. Her large circular arm movements were out of place except in tuttis (orchestra without soloist), but even there the overall dynamic was not proportionate. In a concerto, the conductor does not have to conduct in a way that says “Oh, how I love music!” The Houston Symphony remained as disciplined as possible while providing support. Solo French horn and solo violin were especially fine.

Brinton received a standing ovation along with extended applause. After complimenting his cello section colleagues, they joined him in an arrangement of Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother taught Me.” This was the finest and most beautiful music of the evening.

The second half was rather short since Zhang had selected only six movements of the 14 in the two Suites from Romeo and Juliet. The opening movement “Montagues and Capulets” includes the “Dance of the Knights.” The tempo was bit too fast to fully capture the wide-stance machismo of the young men showing off. “The Young Juliet” tempo was likewise too fast to capture the feeling of girlish charm. The contrasting middle section was given slight reprieve by clarinetist Mark Nuccio, who injected some flexibility. The Minuet, while a bit driven, featured a suave trumpet solo and clarinet/bass clarinet duet elegantly answered by the celli. Given Zhang’s direction, the movement “Masks” felt more on the toes than upright on the heels. The virtuosic “Death of Tybalt” featured impressive French horn playing. A succession of short and loud chords were not totally together. It appeared that Zhang’s beats had varying stopping points (as much as 6 inches), perhaps causing confusion. Zhang rarely stood to face right or left, loosing many opportunities to elicit expression or color. Too much was simply loud and louder. Coming on the heels of recent outstanding concerts, tonight did not measure up.