South Florida Classical Review

Gil Shaham performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Palm Beach Symphony Thursday night. Photo: Chris Lee

The Palm Beach Symphony’s concert Thursday in West Palm Beach yielded a surprisingly lightweight Beethoven performance and an explosive one of Mahler.

Violinist Gil Shaham’s approach to the Beethoven Violin Concerto emphasized speed, lightness and a disposition to step back and let the orchestra take the leading role. Even his stage presence at the Kravis Center illustrated this, with Shaham standing near the orchestra and conductor’s podium like a member of the ensemble standing for a concerto grosso solo.

In the solo opening, his approach brought intensity and a sense of rising force to passages that can sound staid and etude-like in lesser hands. In the first and third movements in which the violin plays intricate filigrees of notes to accompany melodies in the orchestra, he powered down his playing to let the orchestra stand out. 

In this performance there was more pianissimo than fortissimo. In the Larghetto, his playing became a whisper at times, although the orchestra under conductor Gerard Schwarz held back enough that he was always audible.

But Shaham’s intimate approach left the performance feeling underpowered and lacking in shape. Great moments, such as the first-movement climax to passages of triplets accompanying a minor-key melody in the orchestra, went by without the force or sense of musical architecture they seemed to need. 

The soloist could make the violin ring out when he wanted to, as he demonstrated in the cadenzas and in his vigorously performed encore, the Gavotte and Rondeau from Bach’s Partita for Violin No. 3.

After intermission, Schwarz led the orchestra through an exciting performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, full of tension, jubilation and those strange, inward moments in which the vast Mahler orchestra sinks to a primordial pianissimo.

The opening movement, framed by a single long-held note, was full of expectation of the symphonic journey to come, as Schwarz guided the ensemble through a long crescendo. The sounds of life emerging in the winds and brass led to a jubilant climax that discharged the tension.

The second-movement ländler, a European folk dance, moved at a brisk speed, without the exaggerated earthiness favored by some conductors. Particularly effective was the slower trio, where strings played with a touch of garden-party orchestra languor, giving a performance full of personality and Viennese nostalgia.

In the third movement, Mahler’s minor-key version of the “Frère Jacques” tune came off as particularly unearthly in the performance by solo bass and woodwinds. The following folk-dance led by woodwinds, sometimes referred to as Klezmer music, sounded ironic and ghostly.

Then Palm Beach violins brought particular intensity to the last movement’s thunderstorm of an opening, playing with ferocity over shrieking winds, a thumping bass drum and the crash of cymbals. Just as effective were the quiet passages, such as the unearthly interlude in which the orchestra powered down to faint tremolos in the strings and ominous grumbles in winds and brass.

The final passages came off with explosive jubilance, and when the horn players followed Mahler’s instructions and stood to roar out the triumphant choral theme, it was the stirring moment it was intended to be.

The Palm Beach Symphony’s next concert will take place 3 p.m. March 2 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. The program includes Paul Creston’s ‍Invocation and Dance, Howard Hanson’s ‍Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”) and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Garrick Ohlsson. palmbeachsymphony.org

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