South Florida Classical Review

Gerard Schwarz conducted the Palm Beach Symphony Monday night at the Kravis Center. File photo: IndieHouse Films

The Palm Beach Symphony’s principal second violinist stepped up as soloist after the orchestra dropped virtuoso Vadim Repin from the program over his ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A petition from the Ukrainian Association of Florida, which received attention in the press, had demanded the orchestra remove Repin because of the violinist’s status as a “well known public Putin propaganda supporter.” The change of soloists, said a spokeswoman for the orchestra, was “made in the best interests of our organization, musicians, patrons and the greater community.” 

And so violinist Valentin Mansurov took the Kravis Center stage Monday evening as soloist in the world premiere of Lullaby by the American composer Paul Moravec, with the orchestra led by music director Gerard Schwarz. The work was commissioned by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, former U.S. ambassador to Finland, on behalf of the Palm Beach Symphony.

Over the orchestra’s pillow of soft-edged harmonies, which sounded Romantic with a touch of modernism, Mansurov’s violin took flight for an absorbing few minutes of music. In smooth legato tones, he played a melody whose restlessness and wistfulness gave the work more resonance and depth than the simple melody one might have been expected from the piece’s title. Mansurov played in an assured manner, particularly for a last-minute replacement, with a rich, warm tone that expressed the work’s lyric heart without overpowering it with excessive vibrato.

Violinist Valentin Mansurov performed the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Lullaby with the Palm Beach Symphony.

Moravec, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music, composed another work on the program, Miami Variations, which was given its world premiere last year under Schwarz’s baton by the University of Miami’s Frost Symphony Orchestra. 

Aside from the location of its premiere, nothing about the work seemed particularly “Miami.” But it was an engaging, accessible ten minutes or so of music. Constructed around a four-note motif that helped make the work easier to grasp on first hearing, the work starts in a mood of mystery, with sinewy minor-key passages moving through the strings. Through a gradual crescendo, the tone becomes brighter, livelier and brassier, swaggering into an affirmative ending.

In place of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, which Repin had been scheduled to play, the orchestra performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. Among Beethoven’s lightest symphonies, full of musical humor that recalls Haydn, the Fourth is in some ways harder to pull over than more dramatic Beethoven symphonies such as the Third or Fifth, with exposed passages that would reveal any deficiencies of precision or intonation.

The orchestra’s execution was mixed. The opening Allegro came off with rollicking energy and cleanly executed string passages, with lively playing by the flute, oboe and bassoon. The Adagio could have used more dramatic weight in a central passage in which the serene melody gives way to a minor-key gathering of storm clouds. Strings experienced intonation issues in long, quiet slurred passages. The concluding Allegro sounded best, with strings executing the rapid theme with wit and precision, and cellos tearing with gusto into the work’s punchline of an ending.

Johannes Brahms famously said he had been intimidated out of composing his first symphony because he could hear the heavy footsteps of Beethoven behind him. In this case, however, the Beethoven work was a pretty light precursor to Brahms’ big, weighty Symphony No. 3.

The orchestra sounded more consistent and in its element in this work. The first movement, in which the orchestra’s winds played with glowing warmth, came off with turbulence, intensity and heroic vigor. Brass occasionally covered up the rest of the orchestra, in what was to be a recurring issue.

The symphony’s most famous movement is the Poco Allegretto. Cellos gave a fervent performance of the opening melody, hitting hard on the burning dissonance at the top of the phrase. As the melody returned in solo horn, oboe and finally back to strings, its tone and phrasing varied, with each repetition more expressive, and in its final iteration, more searing.

The concluding Allegro was well-executed, with grim precision in the minor-key opening. Th Palm Beach brass played with stark force in their dramatic entrance, although again their fortissimo playing at times overwhelmed the rest of the orchestra.

The Palm Beach Symphony’s next concert will be take place 3 p.m. April 19. The program includes Stravinsky’s Scherzo Fantastique, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Simon Trpčeski. palmbeachsymphony.org

Posted in Performances
No Comments