Toronto Symphony Orchestra. George Walker: Sinfonia No. 2. Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra. Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1. Wednesday Jan. 10 at Roy Thomson Hall. Repeats Thursday Jan. 11 and Saturday Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets here.
Headline soloists, including pianists of Russian birth, are known for their ability to project music robustly to the gallery. Daniil Trifonov, appearing Wednesday night with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, showed an opposite aptitude for drawing the multitudes into the private conservatory of his mind. Seldom has Roy Thomson Hall felt more like a salon.
The unlikely vehicle for this intimacy was Brahms’s grand Piano Concerto No. 1. In Trifonov’s reading (ably seconded on the podium by Gustavo Gimeno) the Adagio was literally and otherwise the centre of the score. Delicate filigree intersected with soft strings to create an atmosphere comparable to that of one of the composer’s late piano intermezzi. Woodwind lines, simple as they were, spoke volumes.
This style was less naturally suited to the substantially tragic first movement, marked Maestoso but here rendered (rather quickly) as a paradoxical Maestoso non troppo. Something in grandeur was missing. Still, there were many beauties and Trifonov’s technical execution was impeccable. Such clear octaves!
Sounds from the orchestra also were very fine. By favouring balance over volume (exuberant timpani excepted) Gimeno uncovered details that often go unnoticed. Both pianist and conductor paid careful attention to counterpoint in the finale. The fugue went well. For once the left-right division of violins did some good.
Introspection can result in polite applause. After this performance there were cheers, to which Trifonov (wearing a jacket and tie rather than tails) responded with an even more subdued solo encore: the Allemande from Rameau’s Suite in A Minor.
The music before intermission was all about the TSO. Witold Lutosławski finished his Concerto for Orchestra in 1954, before he got avant-garde religion. It is a brilliant piece, if not the equal of its namesake by Bartók. Arms aloft, Gimeno oversaw a performance of admirable transparency. There were climaxes, to be sure, but most of the virtuosity was of the quiet quicksilver variety that is not so easy to bring off.
Playing was no less accomplished in the 16-minute Sinfonia No. 2 of the late American, George Walker. Here virtuosity was of little avail. There were some interesting layered brass textures in this three-movement work of 1992. The freeform middle movement sports a prolix flute solo accompanied by lower strings and guitar. But overall, the effect was of grim forward motion in the face of thematic starvation.
We can wish our American friends godspeed in their quest to expand the American repertoire but there is no reason for us to join in the hunt. There are many, many Canadian works of greater merit than this. Gimeno should get busy and find some.
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