After Susanna Mälkki arrived with a usually considerate program of Strauss, Ravel, and the dwelling composer Luca Francesconi, her compatriot Santtu-Matias Rouvali returned to guide a efficiency of their homeland’s final musical avatar: the proudly nationalistic Fifth Symphony of Jean Sibelius. His concert events additionally included the music of Julia Wolfe and much more Strauss: this time, Vier Letzte Lieder, with Miah Persson making a uncommon native look because the soloist. I heard the second of 4 performances on Friday, November 8.
Though hardly a rarity, Strauss’s valedictory contribution to the track repertoire hadn’t been carried out by the Philharmonic since 2001, previous to this week. The work lends itself to quite a lot of vocal approaches, having been carried out by Wagnerian sopranos and lighter lyrics alike. Persson emerged initially within the Susanna-and-Sophie mildew, although as she has aged, she has taken on extra substantial assignments, together with the Marschallin and Countess Madeleine.
From previous expertise listening to her on the Met and Carnegie Corridor, I recalled Persson’s voice as sunny and shiny however possessing the quintessential “ping” that allowed it to hold simply all through the auditorium. Even post-renovation, although, I puzzled how she may fare in David Geffen Corridor, not identified for its supportive vocal acoustic.
The present run may not be the very best alternative to guage the present state of her capacity. Persson canceled the costume rehearsal on November 7—she was changed there by the American-born, Berlin-based Sara Jakubiak—and nonetheless appeared uneasy the next day. “Frühling” started tentatively, with Persson’s quantity reducing noticeably as she moved between registers, and an unlucky tendency to insert catch-breaths into the melismatic line. Right here and in “September,” she supplied little variation intimately or phrasing, preferring a lightness of tone that made a sure sense within the former piece however eliminated a way of distinction from the latter, because the tone of the cycle grew darker.
All through these opening salvos and into “Beim Schlafengehen,” Persson obtained scant assist from Rouvali, whose studying eliminated any sense of thriller or romantic longing from the piece. He eschewed rubato nearly solely, and the orchestra’s makes an attempt to maintain up along with his quick tempos discovered them enjoying at lower than their greatest—the massed strings sounding too shiny and buzzy, the woodwinds curiously wan. Even efficient moments, like concertmaster Frank Huang’s violin solo in “Beim Schlafengehen,” would have sounded higher with a hair extra restraint and introspection. Persson additionally appeared taxed, exhibiting a way of connection to the themes of the piece solely in her silent response to Huang’s solo line.
Persson sounded most safe on the decrease finish of her vary, which served her effectively in “Im Abendrot,” however the total influence of the efficiency made me marvel if the heavier Strauss repertoire was the very best guess for the present stage of her profession. And whereas it could be unfair, studying of Jakubiak’s Einspringerin second made me barely jealous of the rehearsal viewers.
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The live performance opened with Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth, written in 2019 for the Miami-based coaching orchestra New World Symphony. The piece featured most of the composer’s signature touches: thick partitions of sound, total sections that appeared to be preventing one another, uncommon instrumentation, and the suggestion of non-classical genres folded into the material of the work. Some elements genuinely intrigued, resembling how the string tone nearly appeared like a mass of distorted amplification. However moderately than demonstrating any form of thematic drive, the whole impact got here throughout as merely novel. And though Rouvali saved the numerous shifting components of the rating swiftly progressing, I felt for the primary time since Geffen Corridor’s renovation acquainted issues creeping again in. Brass and percussion subsumed the woodwind and strings.
Previously two years alone, I’ve been fortunate to listen to a few of the greatest Finnish conductors carry out the Sibelius Fifth, together with Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Dalia Stasevska. Every introduced a differing strategy to the music, however its sense as a nationwide monument remained abundantly clear. Rouvali supplied a studying notable for its stateliness within the opening and Andante, permitting for notably superb solo enjoying from bassoonist Judith LeClair, however because the music moved into extra hard-charging territory, he gave the impact of shock and awe with out a lot underlying thought. The end result was usually thrilling and moderately crude, particularly within the overworked ultimate bars.
After the dispiriting political occasions this previous week in America, although, it felt good to momentarily escape right into a composer’s imaginative and prescient of his nation at its very best. There’s clearly a motive why Finnish conductors and worldwide audiences stay drawn to this piece. It engenders a sense of optimism and delight—feelings I hope to really feel towards my very own homeland once more sometime.
Photographs: Chris Lee
