Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan Crow (violin), Peter Oundjian (conductor) Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St. 416-593-4828. www.tso.ca
[Also published in the Toronto Star]
There are some concerts that leave us slightly different after hearing them. They are rare, but when they appear, as it did last night at Roy Thomson Hall, it is a reminder of the enormous power that music has over us.
Tchaikovsky often exercised his demons in his music, but never quite like this. His “Pathétique” Symphony – which unannounced at the time was really his Requiem – opens with a murmur. Forty-five minutes of some of the most dramatic music ever written ends with a fading heartbeat motif in the final bars. Tchaikovsky’s own heart would stop just nine days after it premiered in October 1893. Some claim it was suicide by arsenic, others, that it was from drinking contaminated water during a cholera epidemic that had been ravaging much of Europe in 1893.
Despite the heaviness that comes with Tchaikovsky’s 6th, Saturday night marked TSO Music Director’s Peter Oundjian 60th birthday. “I can stop dying my hair now,” he joked.
After a birthday hug from TSO’s Jonathan Crow, Oundjian used the opportunity to show the TSO can play for keeps in an all-Tchaikovsky programme.
The theatrics started with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major. In a casting twist, Jonathan Crow slinked on stage cradling his violin not as concertmaster, but as soloist. The devilishly difficult concerto is an old hat for Crow. Long before making headlines as the youngest concertmaster in North America, he performed it with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra under Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who was so impressed with his tone, invited him again the following year.
Written in a Swiss resort in Lake Geneva, the piece is possessed with rejuvenation. Tchaikovsky had finally recovered from his first suicide attempt brought on by the calamity of a marriage to Antonina Miliukova. Crow injected moments of resolve, healing, and a will to live. Oundjian, the TSO and Crow succumbed to them all, but we all know what happens next.
Fifteen years later, Tchaikovsky composes his Symphony No. 6 and seals his fate. What has become apparent is that this is a symphony orchestra that clearly loves Tchaikovsky. Peter Oundjian showed his spritely self, leading the work through its many singing lines, and complex phrasing. Without being overly indulgent with the darker moments, Oundjian carried the orchestra with poise and spoke between the lines. The TSO, particularly Clarinettist Yao Guang Zhai, played convincingly throughout.
As last night showed, the TSO have a real knack for Tchaikovsky – and one wonders if they could be convinced to add an all-Tchaikovsky programme to their discography sometime soon.
The TSO will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” as part of their programming for their upcoming tour to Florida, January 3-9 with pianist Jan Lisiecki. If last night is any indication, they are in for a real treat. Details here.
P.S.
Happy birthday Peter Oundjian!
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