Joshua Bell performs impressive 'Red Violin'
American music rings in the New Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony, with violinist Joshua Bell giving an impressive performance of John Corigliano's "The Red Violin" Concerto.
Guest conductor Leonard Slatkin began Friday night's concert with Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra. Barber's music is imaginative and lushly romantic, especially in his early works such as the Second Essay.
It's an American classic, though you couldn't tell it by Pittsburgh Symphony programming -- it was last performed here more than 40 years ago.
The Pittsburgh Symphony remains an impressive orchestra even when not in top form, as was the case last night, the first Mellon Grand Classics concert in more than a month.
Tone production and ensemble were not the only issues at Heinz Hall. Slatkin was cool emotionally in lyrical music, though he secured strong climaxes.
Barber's music was an apt prelude for the first Pittsburgh performance of Corigliano's Violin Concerto that he created out of music he wrote for the film "The Red Violin."
The elements that produced subliminal coherence in the film also tie the concerto together, especially the chaconne theme, a chord progression that is one of the fundamental building blocks.
Corigliano gave a long but excellent introduction to his piece. My favorite line sounds a note of advice - if you listen below the melody you'll heard the chaconne theme all the time.
The first movement was created first and premiered 11 years ago, and is the most impressive part of the concerto. The piece is dedicated to his father, John Corigliano, who was the longtime concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
The composer's love of the violin and its fabulous literature is abundantly clear. Many turns of phrase evoke memories of beloved violin repertoire.
Corigliano's second and third movements are quite successful, especially the funny little waltz in the middle of the Pianissimo Scherzo and the entire Andante Flautando.
Bell, who premiered the Chaconne and in 2003 the whole concerto, played magnificently. He also sells his performance very well visually.
The weakest part of Corigliano's concerto is the finale, based on accelerandoes - speeding up. The composer is a complete master of sound effects and uses a crunching sound in the finale that I must admit I do not like, especially at the end of the piece.
The concert concluded with Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in a new version of Maurice Ravel's orchestration by Slatkin that restores a Promenade Ravel cut and some of Mussorgsky's harmonies that Ravel altered. The performance issues that affected the Barber piece were present in the Mussorgsky, too.
