CONCERT REVIEW: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
First CSO stint shouldn't be Jarvi's last
By Wynne Delacoma
Chicago Sun-Times, October 9, 2004
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
HIGHLY recommended
When: 8 tonight
Where: Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan
Tickets: $17-$110
Call: (312) 294-3000
The unsettled atmosphere at Symphony Center that included a spate of conductor cancellations during the first weeks of the season isn't entirely over yet.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians and management are still negotiating a new players' contract to replace the one that expired last month. And music director Daniel Barenboim, who canceled several dates due to back problems, is determined to conduct as scheduled in late October.
The orchestra typically begins its concert weeks on Thursdays, but in part because of the Jewish holidays, this week's Thursday performance was the first of the CSO's nearly month-old season. As if to celebrate a welcome return to routine, the orchestra gave a stimulating concert under the baton of Paavo Jarvi, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, who was making his CSO debut.
Thursday's audience knew something special was in the air with the supple, expansive performance of Debussy's languorous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Principal flute Mathieu Dufour brought his signature golden warmth to the opening solo, but the seamless way Michael Henoch's more penetrating oboe picked up and extended the flute line was magical.
Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2 is both astringent and passionate, and soloist Christian Tetzlaff found just the right combination of anxiety and serenity in its two large movements. Jarvi and the orchestra performed Bartok's darkly mordant opening pages with an energy and drive that made them especially ominous. In the concerto's hallucinatory moments, Tetzlaff's violin turned woozy and discordant, reeling against the brooding, jumpy orchestra.
Carl Nielsen's large-scale Symphony No. 5 sounded surprisingly intimate at times. The snare drum's martial tattoo was as dry and relentless as machinegun fire, while stammering violins stormed and buzzed like a horde of insects.
Jarvi is a conductor to watch. Cincinnati may have him signed up through 2008-09, but he should be on the CSO's radar as it searches for a successor to Barenboim, who will be leaving at the end of the 2005-06 season. Conductors of Jarvi's caliber are a rare breed.
By Wynne Delacoma
Chicago Sun-Times, October 9, 2004
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
HIGHLY recommended
When: 8 tonight
Where: Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan
Tickets: $17-$110
Call: (312) 294-3000
The unsettled atmosphere at Symphony Center that included a spate of conductor cancellations during the first weeks of the season isn't entirely over yet.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians and management are still negotiating a new players' contract to replace the one that expired last month. And music director Daniel Barenboim, who canceled several dates due to back problems, is determined to conduct as scheduled in late October.
The orchestra typically begins its concert weeks on Thursdays, but in part because of the Jewish holidays, this week's Thursday performance was the first of the CSO's nearly month-old season. As if to celebrate a welcome return to routine, the orchestra gave a stimulating concert under the baton of Paavo Jarvi, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, who was making his CSO debut.
Thursday's audience knew something special was in the air with the supple, expansive performance of Debussy's languorous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Principal flute Mathieu Dufour brought his signature golden warmth to the opening solo, but the seamless way Michael Henoch's more penetrating oboe picked up and extended the flute line was magical.
Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2 is both astringent and passionate, and soloist Christian Tetzlaff found just the right combination of anxiety and serenity in its two large movements. Jarvi and the orchestra performed Bartok's darkly mordant opening pages with an energy and drive that made them especially ominous. In the concerto's hallucinatory moments, Tetzlaff's violin turned woozy and discordant, reeling against the brooding, jumpy orchestra.
Carl Nielsen's large-scale Symphony No. 5 sounded surprisingly intimate at times. The snare drum's martial tattoo was as dry and relentless as machinegun fire, while stammering violins stormed and buzzed like a horde of insects.
Jarvi is a conductor to watch. Cincinnati may have him signed up through 2008-09, but he should be on the CSO's radar as it searches for a successor to Barenboim, who will be leaving at the end of the 2005-06 season. Conductors of Jarvi's caliber are a rare breed.
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