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Tchaikovsky
the classicist and the romantic
Deborah Pae, YAA winner a year ago
Friday,
March 6, 2006
By Mary Morse
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Vassily Sinaisky (cond.), Deborah Pae (cello - winner of 2005 Young Artists Audition). 'Russian Fire.' All-Tchaikovsky: Mozartiana, Variations on a Rococo Theme, Symphony no. 4. Prudential Hall, NJPAC, Newark.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's all-Tchaikovsky "Russian Fire" program, replete with a Russian guest conductor, Vassily Sinaisky, saved the bonfire for Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. The first half of the program didn't blaze but occasionally sparked, especially in the Variations on a Rococo Theme with guest cellist Deborah Pae, a high school senior who won the NJSO's 2005 Young Artists Audition.
Tchaikovsky's Op. 33, Variations on a Rococo Theme is best known for its considerable technical challenges for the solo cellist. The NJSO and Sinaisky obviously admired Pae and wanted to make her debut an evening for her and the audience to remember. An initial timidity wore off within a few minutes and from then on, Pae delivered a vigorous but controlled performance. In the third variation, Pae imbued the cello's lower depths with a rich timbre, a true contrast to the dervish speed she maintained during the cadenza. She received the evening's first standing ovation.
Mozartiana, the lightweight of the program and its opener, started a bit sluggishly for movements inspired by the liveliness of gigue and minuet. In the "Prayer" movement, borrowed from Liszt's transcription of Mozart's Ave verum corpus, Sinaisky guided the strings and harp through delicate dynamic nuances. In the finale, NJSO Concertmaster Eric Wyrick played the delightful violin solo with vivacious élan but never lost sight of his primary role as orchestral leader.
Siniasky conducted a passionate, fiery Symphony No. 4, inspiring one concertgoer to announce as he exited, 'Only a Russian could do that.' The NJSO clearly respected his bold, energized interpretation. Tchaikovsky himself expressed his mood as 'Fate . . . the sword of Damocles that hangs over our head . . . feelings of depression and hopelessness,' according to Laurie Shulman's program notes. The opening fanfare exuded weight until it gave way to the crystalline interplay between woodwinds and strings in the dreamlike waltz segment. The adagio's plaintive subject, played with deeply felt intensity by principal oboist Carolyn Pollack and sustained by the cellos, swept us into our own reveries. As the movement closed, Siniasky seemed to be entreating the violins to do his will, and they stilled to the smallest possible sound, a literal heartbeat of melancholy.
The third movement scherzo momentarily lifted us with a string pizzicato that seemed as melodic as rhythmic. The movement ended with strings, winds, and brass darting back and forth before settling into a controlled but resonant resolution.
No matter how many times we have heard it, the last movement still can wrench us to our souls. As the strains of a Russian folk song (The Little Pine Tree) weave between the elements from the first and second movements, the F minor key keeps resisting the composer's intent to move into the clearer air of F major. Sinaisky and the NJSO delineated the composer's own struggle between joy and despair with enormous energy. The triumphant blaze of the finale left us feeling lucky to escape with just a singe.