CSO’s ‘Symphonie fantastique’ a fantastic journey
“Let’s have fun. Bon voyage,” said music director Louis Langrée, as he launched into Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”
And what a fantastic journey it was.
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra opened its season in Music Hall on Friday morning with a show-stopping performance of Berlioz’s colorful and harrowing symphony, a work like no other. The spectacle onstage included 95 musicians, with two sets of timpani, four harps, chimes tolling offstage, and a shepherd’s oboe echoing from the highest reaches of Music Hall.
Listeners were on their feet, cheering – twice. Because equally astounding was the performance turned in by pianist Yefim Bronfman in Bartok’s punishing Piano Concerto No. 2, which came before intermission. Bronfman tackled its fiendish difficulties with explosive power, and then returned for the most delicate of encores: Scarlatti’s Sonata in C Minor.
Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is propelled by Hungarian folk music – but also by its relentless drive and non-stop challenges for the pianist. Bronfman, an American who was born in Tashkent (in then-Soviet Union), is a regular visitor to the Cincinnati Symphony. He possesses a powerful technique, but his tone, even in Bartok’s most percussive moments, was never harsh.
The pianist produced big, orchestral sounds in the concerto’s opening, a bright movement, which called for massive fistfuls of virtuosities from start to finish. The slow movement offered marked contrasts in atmosphere, with deeply interior playing by the pianist, interrupted by a frenzied, rhythmic section at its center.
Bronfman’s dialogue with Langrée and the orchestra was gripping. Bold themes for the brass reached their peak in the finale. Added to that, one could only marvel at the split-second precision between timpanist Patrick Schleker and the pianist. Bronfman, in perfect control, navigated keyboard-spanning feats, one after another. It was the most thrilling performance of Bartok I have ever heard.
After intermission, the orchestra revisited Berlioz’s masterpiece, “Symphonie fantastique,” which was as memorable for its drama as it was for its moments of beauty and lyricism. Inspired by an actress with whom Berlioz was obsessed, his pictorial symphony describes a drug-induced fantasy world.
Langrée, now starting his third season as music director, has proven to be a leader of both subtlety and musicality. Both were evident in these five movements. One was struck off the bat by the lightness and nuance of “Reveries, Passions.” Despite huge orchestral forces, its hallmarks were clarity, transparency and precision. Scenes were vividly depicted, such as the whirling waltz of “A Ball,” and the pastoral “Scene in the Country.”
Yet, he also knew when to galvanize his players, and the orchestra has never sounded better. The “March to the Scaffold” was brisk and hair-raising, vividly depicted all the way to the drum-rolls of the guillotine. The grotesque “Witches’ Sabbath” gripped to the last bar.
Orchestral soloists provided many engaging moments, such as the shepherd’s tune (“Ranz des vaches”), played by Christopher Philpotts on English horn.
For the curtain raiser, Langrée led an energized performance of Beethoven’s Overture to “Fidelio,” Op. 72.
The CSO repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday Sept. 26 (the gala opening night) in Music Hall. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Langrée leads “Stories in Concert,” featuring “Symphonie fantastique.” Tickets and information: 513-381-3300, cincinnatisymphony.org.