United States Grant Park Music Pageant – Elgar, Holst: Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Lauren Decker (contralto), Grant Park Music Pageant Refrain and Orchestra / Carlos Kalmar (conductor). Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, 15.6.2024. (JLZ)
Elgar – Violin Concerto in B minor, Op.61
Holst – The Cloud Messenger, Op.30
The primary Saturday night live performance in Chicago’s Grant Park Music Pageant had two large-scale Edwardian compositions on this system: Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B minor (1910) and Holst’s The Cloud Messenger (1913). Christian Tetzlaff was the soloist for the Elgar, and his method blended virtuosic approach with stable musicianship in an interpretation that made the piece vivid and thrilling.
The technical particulars of the work have been extraordinarily clear on this out of doors setting. Tetzlaff gave form to the primary motion’s typically sprawling construction with a variety of dynamics and a good sound all through the registers that Elgar employed. Kalmar’s cautious consideration to element was evident in his responsiveness to each soloist and orchestra as he introduced it to a panoramic conclusion.
The second motion was spectacular for the prominence of the violin’s wealthy decrease register, a function that Tetzlaff used to nice impact. On this efficiency, Kalmar emphasised the lyricism that echoes at occasions the ‘Nimrod’ part of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. It was a chance to take pleasure in Tetzlaff’s mastery of the rating and his instrument. With the third motion, the technical calls for of the piece benefited from the violinist’s note-perfect precision. The depth that he dropped at the finale stored the viewers rapt by means of the final word. It was a pleasure to listen to this well-known concerto within the palms of such a gifted interpreter as Tetzlaff.
The second half of this system introduced Holst’s uncommon The Cloud Messenger to Chicago audiences. This cantata-like piece is a large-scale canvas that has the distinctive place of being the work which Holst accomplished simply earlier than The Planets. Whereas some level to its weaknesses in distinction to the favored enchantment that The Planets achieved, this efficiency gave a stable studying that invitations one to come back again to it. The textual content, which is predicated on the composer’s translation of the Hindu poet Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, describes the efforts of an exiled soul to invoke a cloud to bear a message of affection to his spouse. Inside that premise, Kālidāsa expresses the facility of affection that distance can’t hinder. As an alternative, love transcends the fact of exile that the husband and spouse endure, and Holst captured that sentiment nicely on this finely crafted work. Cautious listening to the rating reveals stylistic traits that Holst utilized in The Planets and elsewhere, as within the wordless choral sections which can be widespread to each, or the percussive ostinato passages that enhanced the sung textual content.
Kalmar’s persuasive studying gave full rein to the plush chromatic harmonies and wealthy scoring on this uncared for piece. The tutti passages for full orchestra benefited from the cautious voicing that made the textures resound. Within the chamber-music like sections that anticipate, in a way, the method that Mahler would use in some elements of Das Lied von der Erde, the orchestra responded attentively to Kalmar’s route.
The identical could also be mentioned of the Grant Park Pageant Refrain. The choral textures had good definition, though at occasions the diction might have made extra of Holst’s textual content. It was significantly good to listen to contralto/dramatic mezzo-soprano Lauren Decker within the solo passages. Decker commanded the half with becoming fashion, from the articulate mid-range passages by means of the complete low notes that sound as in the event that they have been composed expressly for her voice.
All in all, the small print wanted for a profitable revival have been evident all through the Holst efficiency, simply as they have been with Elgar’s Violin Concerto. Through the years, the Grant Park Music Pageant has develop into recognized for together with customary repertoire in addition to for programming new or unfamiliar works, and that was the case this night. It was an evening of excellent music-making, and an distinctive approach to open the brand new season as conductor Carlos Kalmar celebrates his twenty-fifth and last yr in main the Grant Park Music Pageant.
James L. Zychowicz
