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closeFriday, Oct. 30, 2009
Guest conductor steers all-Tchaikovsky program
Working without a score, guest conductor steers FWSO through all-Tchaikovsky program.
By CHRIS SHULL
Special to dfw.com
SPECIAL TO THE S-T/RACHEL PARKER
Mei-Ann Chen conducts the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at Bass Hall on Friday. The heavy-hitting piece on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathetique. SPECIAL TO THE S-T/RACHEL PARKER
FORT WORTH — With all the attention Shakespeare is getting in conjunction with the openings of the Winspear and the Wyly theaters over in Dallas — the Dallas Opera is presenting Verdi’s version of Othello and the Dallas Theater Center is staging Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream — it was a nice coincidence for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra to follow suit with some Shakespeare-inspired music of its own.
On Friday at Bass Hall, the orchestra opened an all-Tchaikovsky program with the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
Guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen, working without a score, led the ensemble through a musical encapsulation of the famous love story. A "love theme" showcased a gorgeous, velvety string tone that would return again and again throughout the evening. Hammered accents and sizzling strings mirrored the soaring emotions of the young lovers and the assault upon it by their warring families.
(Audiences today and Sunday will also hear Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest Symphonic Fantasia, also inspired by a Shakespeare play but omitted from Friday’s "casual chic" concert.)
The heavy-hitting piece on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathetique. (No Shakespeare connection here.)
A famous romantic theme soars in the first movement of this long work, too. The second movement was a waltz, a tapestry of rich textures and sparkling sound.
The third was a march crisply played, full of zippy accents and happy bluster. The finale was heavy and dark; the symphony ended quietly.
The brasses played exceptionally well throughout the concert — always hard-hitting, with the trumpets adding icy tops to craggy phrases; trombones and tuba solemn; French horns stuttering behind anxious melodies.
Chen’s conducting style was dramatic. She sculpted the music with outsized flourishes.
Especially in the first and final movements of the symphony, she stretched phrases to their limits before the pace picked up steam.
If at times she pushed the music toward melodrama, the orchestra followed her elastic phrasing and made a compelling case for her interpretation.
$9-$78
www.fwsymphony.org; 817-665-6000
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