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SCRUTINY | The Toronto Symphony Orchestra In Carnegie Hall Is A Colourful Centennial Affair

By Arthur Kaptainis on February 14, 2023

Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at New York's Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)
Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)

Samy Moussa: Symphony No. 2 (US Premiere); Lalo: Symphonie espagnole; Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet (compiled by Gustavo Gimeno) – Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno, Music Director and Conductor; María Dueñas, Violin. Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY, February 13, 2023.

NEW YORK — Everyone is a critic.

“You from Toronto?” asked the casually-dressed gentleman seated to my left Monday night in the greatest concert hall of the Americas. “Pretty good band you have up there.”

It was not a minority opinion. Many were the bravos after Gustavo Gimeno led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra through a nine-movement, 39-minute suite drawn from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. The conductor might have hoped for a respectful pause after the concluding Death of Juliet section, but he cannot have been unhappy with the volume mustered by the motley Carnegie Hall crowd.

This was the first appearance by the TSO in the temple on Seventh Avenue since 2011 and the 27th since then-music director Walter Susskind oversaw the orchestra’s Carnegie debut in 1963. Overdue in any case, the return was made especially desirable by the TSO’s centennial celebrations. New York was the central stop of a rapid-fire three-city tour that began Saturday in Ottawa and concludes Tuesday in Chicago — or Friday in Massey Hall, depending on how you score it at home.

The Carnegie concert of 2011 was a sellout, courtesy of the guest artist, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, a friend of Gimeno’s immediate predecessor, Peter Oundjian. The event on Monday was not. The floor and first two tiers were reasonably full, but the dress circle and balcony were unoccupied. My neighbour got his ticket through a radio-station contest. Many seats were priced at US$25. It also needs to be remembered that this was not a Carnegie subscription concert but a presentation by the reputable Opus 3 management company.

Well, whatever. The people were there because they wanted to be, including dozens of friends of the orchestra who made the trip from Toronto and some temporary New Yorkers, such as the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations (and former TSO chairman) Bob Rae. Undoubtedly more than a few came with an abiding interest in the guest soloist, María Dueñas, a 20-year-old Spanish violinist who might not have Perlman drawing power at the moment but whose star potential was abundantly clear in Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with violinist María Dueñas at New York's Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)
Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with violinist María Dueñas at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)

We speak sometimes of an artist who has it all. Here is a case of someone who expands our sense of the things an artist can have. Of course the basics of articulation, velocity and projection are present, but also an instinct for the fiery intensity of a phrase and an ear for the picturesque. Much of the latter quality is embodied by Lalo’s use of Spanish folk rhythms, on which Dueñas could riff naturally, adding little nips and tucks without compromising (indeed, rather enhancing) the flow. As for sonority, she seemed to have an entire string section packed into her Nicolò Gagliano instrument. Add to all this a poised stage presence and natural carriage that includes a long ponytail that dances alluringly under the spotlight. I could go on.

Playing this creative can put an orchestra on the defensive, but Gimeno and the TSO were with Dueñas all the way, generating a positive and balanced accompaniment (great brass chorales to start the Andante) that elevated the five-movement score of 1874 far above its pops associations.

Their main showpiece, however, was the Prokofiev, a panoply of orchestral colour in which many individuals contribute to the whole. It would be impossible to name all the names, but Michael Casimir, the TSO’s fledgling principal viola, narrowly won the applause-o-metre contest for his handsome projection of an instrument not known for its extroverted qualities.

Ensemble playing was enriched by the justly famous Carnegie acoustics. One could hardly have asked for more diaphanous strings in the Balcony Scene.

To concertmaster Jonathan Crow, the soft stuff was sweetest. “The loud material is of course spectacular,” he said after the concert, “but for me, the most rewarding sounds come in the lower dynamics, where the hall allows nuance and freedom in the playing that you can’t find almost anywhere else.”

Nor was the success all about sound. A great advocate of clarity, Gimeno evoked a feeling of narrative through his own sequence of movements, which faithfully reflected Shakespeare’s story.

Maestro Gustavo Gimeno, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and violinist María Dueñas face the applause at New York's Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)
Maestro Gustavo Gimeno, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and violinist María Dueñas face the applause at New York’s Carnegie Hall (Photo: Nadia Quinn)

There were good things to say also about the U.S. premiere of Samy Moussa’s Symphony No. 2, a TSO commission that had its successful first performance last May in Roy Thomson Hall. I was expecting Carnegie to work its magic on this evocative 20-minute essay in becoming and being, but a few touches of congestion suggested that Gimeno and the orchestra peaked too early and too often.

Still, it was appropriate to take a substantial Canadian piece on a celebratory tour. As for the frank success of the event, the music director deflected credit to his 93 players — including extras — at a post-concert reception. “So generous, so aware that great music happens only with giving and sharing,” he said of his charges. “They looked, and played, like: ‘I’m going to enjoy it.’”

But back to the hall, where the crowd clearly did enjoy it — enough to request an encore, the Lyric Waltz from Shostakovich’s Ballet Suite No. 1 Op. 84. If the second encore was not exactly demanded, it was appreciated: “Somewhere” from West Side Story.

“Great touch, ending with the Bernstein,” said Bob Rae at the reception.

Everyone is a critic.

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Arthur Kaptainis
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