Mau 2, 4 & 5, 2024
Jones Hall
Houston, Texas – USA
Houston Symphony,; Fabien Gabel, conductor; Alexandra Dariescu, piano.
Donghoon SHIN: Kafka’s Dream
Edvard GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 16
Ottorino RESPIGHI: Fontane di Roma (“Fountains of Rome”), P. 106
Ottorino RESPIGHI: Pini di Roma (“Pines of Rome”), P. 141
Lawrence Wheeler | 3 MAY 2024
Thursday evening was the first of three performances at Jones Hall, with guest conductor Fabien Gabel leading the Houston Symphony. Pianist Alexandra Dariescu was soloist in Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. The program included Kafka’s Dream by Donghoon Shin and Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poems Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome.
South Korean composer Shin states he is entranced by intertextuality, where a literary work is connected to or influenced by another work of literature or art. Premiered in 2019, Kafka’s Dream takes its inspiration from Ein Traume (“A Dream”) by Jorge Luis Borges. In that short story, Borges imagines Franz Kafka dreaming about a man and a woman. Shin’s piece is a third degree of separation or retweet of the original source.
The three movements are played without pause. The first is titled “The Woman and the Man.” It begins with a meandering cello line followed by an oboe solo. It features quick changes and dynamic punctuations. Reaching a loud conclusion, the movement ends abruptly with the second movement, “I am left alone,” which opens with a mournful oboe solo followed by French horn and percussion. Shin has said that the third movement, “Amidst a clash of worlds,” was inspired by his own dream about the previous two movements. In a quicker tempo with mixed meter, it utilizes multiple percussion with chimes and becomes increasingly agitated. Conducting sans baton, Gabel led an organized and finely balanced performance.
More intellectual than Kafkaesque, Kafka’s Dream is well constructed but somewhat limited in emotional content. Shin has remarked, “I always depict a story in my music, but you don’t need to know about it. It’s just for me.” In order to endure, music needs to relate on an emotional as well as intellectual level. That interconnectivity with the listener requires extending beyond oneself.
Entering the stage with a broad smile, Romanian-British pianist Dariescu sat and delivered a powerhouse performance of Grieg’s well-known Piano Concerto. The concerto’s melodious themes and pleasant harmonies can easily become a caricature of itself, but when given such a committed and virtuosic performance, we can be drawn into its sonic world without question.
Through judicious use of the piano’s sustaining pedal, Dariescu produced a sound of uncommon clarity. Possessing rather small hands, she still produced a powerful sound where required by turning her hands outward to strengthen the fourth fingers. A prodigious technique was evident throughout. Her first movement cadenza was brilliant, and the movement’s end was met with applause. The “Adagio” second movement was magical and created with consummate artistry. The third movement, “Allegro Moderato molto e marcato,” danced joyfully and organically with the orchestra.
Pianist Alexandra Dariescu (credit: Nicholas Rutter)
Now conducting with a baton, Gabel provided an excellent, attentive, and well-balanced accompaniment. The combination of soloist and orchestra electrified the Jones Hall stage with crackling energy alternating with tender lyricism. Rarely are both parts of a concerto so unified.
As led by Gabel, the Houston Symphony had countless moments of inspired playing. The strings moved as one in the rhythmic sections of the first movement, and the cello section presented several lyrical and tonally beautiful themes. Flute and French horn offered exceptional solos. Precise and sonorous bass pizzicatos provided a solid bass line.
After several curtain calls, Dariescu played an encore–The Goblin and the Mosquito by Florence Price. As done by Dariescu, the musical depictions were quite humorous. Through no fault of her own, a slight detraction was the very top notes on the piano, which sounded like hitting glass instead of having pitches.
Following intermission, Gabel led two symphonic poems by Respighi, beginning with The Fountains of Rome. Depicting four fountains, the work is an excellent example of Respighi’s colorful and inventive orchestration. (Even so, one wonders if two passages in the first movement were inspired by a similar chord progression in Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavelier, written four years earlier.) Oboist Jonathan Fischer began The Fountains of Rome with a wide range of sound and flexibility of phrasing, setting the stage for an exceptional performance. He was joined by wonderful English horn, cello, and flute solos, with solo violin and piccolo adding to the charm. The brass were unified and layered without presenting a monolithic wall of sound. Fountains of Rome ended quietly, and Gabel had his arms at his side. Feeling like a hug that lasts a little too long, the ensuing silence was uncomfortable. While this piece is less familiar to audiences, possibly contributing to the delay was a listed program timing that is more than double the actual performance time.
Pines of Rome is a sure-fire audience favorite. At the beginning, the piece conveys the character of children at play in the Villa Borghese, complete with a musical razzing. “Pines near a catacomb” features an offstage trumpet solo, played with haunting and touching beauty by Mark Hughes. “The Pines of the Janiculum” has an extended clarinet solo, wonderfully spun out with legato phrasing by Mark Nuccio. The prerecorded chirping birds sounded slightly too soft in the hall. “The Pines of the Appian Way” begins with distant drums and the muffled wails of those long since crucified. Those two-note cries of anguish in the strings could have been more expressive. Beginning with French horns, it grows in volume and intensity as imaginary Roman legions march triumphantly. The Houston Symphony brass section, supported by multiple percussion and trumpets and euphoniums in the balconies, was nothing short of spectacular with one of the greatest endings in music. Gabel has grown artistically since his last time in Houston and showed himself to be a musically mature conductor.
The program will be repeated Saturday evening at 8:00 pm and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Houston Symphony: houstonsymphony.org/
- Fabien Gabel: fabiengabel.com
- Alexandra Dariescu: alexandradariescu.com
Read more by Lawrence Wheeler.
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