November 17 & 19, 2022
Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
John Storgårds, conductor; Inon Barnatan, piano.
Outi TARKIAINEN: Midnight Sun Variations
Sergei RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
CHOPIN/STRAVINSKY: Nocturne in -flst major, Op. 32 nho. 2
CHOPIN/STRAVINSKY: Grand Waltz
Jean SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 5
Mark Gresham | 18 NOV 2022
November appears to unofficially be “Finnish Month” for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Last week the ASO had conductor Hannu Lintu on the podium, opening the concert with a work by Jean Sibelius opening the program. This week, Finnish conductor John Storgårds took the helm with more Sibelius and a contemporary piece by 37-year-old Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen.
Outi Tarkiainen (credit: Sigel Eschkol)
Tarkiainen’s exquisite Midnight Sun Variations (“Yön auringon variaatiot”) opened the program. Written in 2019 on a commission from the BBC Philharmonic and The National Arts Centre Orchestra, the composer calls it a set of variations “on the light when the sun never sets in the arctic summer.”
Midnight Sun Variations is a tone poem of shimmering cascades and luminous textures built over an underlying tension. But more than just iridescence, it is a well-crafted work that holds attention beyond its colorful, skillful orchestration.
Even Tarkiainen’s program notes are poetically affective and euphonious. In English:
In Finnish:
It was an auspicious beginning for the evening’s program.
Pianist Inon Bartanon then joined Storgårds and the ASO as soloist for the highly popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (“Рапсодия на тему Паганини”) for piano and orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Written in 1934, it’s a set of 24 variations on the 24th of Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin.
I spell the composer’s name “Rachmaninoff” because that’s how it is spelled in his American citizenship papers; how he spelled it himself. Thus, the correct way in the United States is not “Rachmaninov,” which is the current transliteration in other parts of the English-speaking world, such as the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations.
Pianist Inon Barnatan (credit: Rand Lines)
After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia for the United States, settling in New York City in 1918, although he would not become a US citizen until a few weeks before he died in 1943. He spent a quarter-century residing in the United States. Rachmaninoff significantly influenced American attitudes toward classical music, and undoubtedly American music influenced him in return.
Frankly, Bartanan’s performance felt more “American” to me than most performances you usually hear, especially up through the famous 18th variation, although I believe at least a hint of it can always be found on the piece, given my long-time musings about the American influences on the Russian-born master and vice versa.
The orchestra part under Storgårds felt more accompagnato, leaving Barnatan’s piano part plenty of sonic room, but they did not take much full advantage of the power an orchestra usually affords the Rhapsody. Barnatan, on the other hand, did take full advantage of the situation with a superbly lean and energized performance that stood out well against the backdrop of the orchestral forces. The American-leaning feeling was further emphasized by Barnatan’s lively encore: George Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm,” in an arrangement by Earl Wild.
In the year prior to composing L’Oiseau de feu (“The Firebird”), Igor Stravinsky arranged two pieces of Chopin’s piano music on commission from Diaghilev as part of Les Sylphides, performed by the Ballets Russes in their inaugural season at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 1909: the Nocturne in A♭ major, Op 32, No. 2, and the Grande valse brillante, Op. 18. It was the first collaboration between Stravinsky and Diaghilev.
Guest conductor John Storgårds. (credit: Rand Lines)
This was the ASO’s first time playing these arrangements, which are available on a good handful of recordings. They reveal Stravinsky’s early ability at transcription and orchestration. But they also come across as work-a-day pieces that are more pragmatic than inspired. They lack the character of orchestration found in Stravinsky’s Feu d’artifice (1908/9) and the soon-to-come L’Oiseau de feu. Stravinsky’s orchestration of his own contemporaneous works is far more interesting than what he did with Chopin.
I was looking forward to the program’s concluding work, the Symphony No. 5 of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius but it felt unexpectedly ordinary in this performance, lacking in nuance and drama; a little flat overall compared to the music in the first half. The energy in the finale seemed not fully focused until the last couple of dozen bars, coming together for a cohesive ending with six staggered fortississimo chords, each separated by silence. My own expectation is that the ASO will make the piece shine a bit more on Saturday night. ■
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will repeat this program on Saturday, Novemeber 19, 2022, at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: aso.org
- John Storgårds: johnstorgards.com
- Inon Barnatan: inonbarnatan.com
- Outi Tarkiainen: outitarkiainen.fi
Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.
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