Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Alison Yun-Fei Jiang: Illumination. Hildegard von Bingen, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Missy Mazzoli, Sarah Kirkland Snider/arr. Jarkko Riihimäki: enargeia. Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano. Gustavo Gimeno, conductor. Roy Thomson Hall on May 1, 2024. Repeats May 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets here.
Something old, something new: Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra are hedging their bets this weekend in Montreal and Ottawa. One hopes the program will fare better on tour than it did Wednesday evening in Roy Thomson Hall.
The golden oldie after intermission was Brahms’s First Symphony, a grand score that never fails. Almost. The normally admirable TSO strings on this occasion sounded shrill. Balances with the winds were off, and ensemble was hit and miss.
Fast tempos furnished only an outward approximation of energy. There were, of course, some positives: The oboe managed to sound lyrical at a quickstep in the Andante sostenuto movement. Trombones were cohesive in the finale. Overall, however — and despite an authoritative array of gestures from Gimeno — this was a disappointing run-through.
In the first half there were two premieres, starting with Illumination, an 11-minute tone poem by TSO RBC affiliate composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang. Toggling between forceful and lyrical passages, the score seemed to offer the ear either too much or too little. Stressed chords (presumably the thunderbolts referenced by the composer in her program notes) turned tedious with repetition. There was some interesting fluttering for the two trumpets.
Next we heard Emily D’Angelo, a TSO spotlight artist, in the first North American performance of enargeia, a compendium of music by four women composers (Hildegard von Bingen, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Missy Mazzoli, Sarah Kirkland Snider) based on D’Angelo’s like-titled (and acclaimed) Deutsche Grammophon recital of 2021.
Boosted here and there by a microphone, the Toronto mezzo-soprano made more of an impression than she did in her TSO appearance in November. Her fast vibrato created a pleading tone that was suited to forlorn music.
Not all the songs were slow and soulful. Snider’s “The Lotus Eaters” included a drum set at its climax. Still, the prevailing mood was melancholy and, ultimately, monochromatic. It did not help that D’Angelo, dressed in black, maintained a static stage presence throughout.
Jarkko Riihimäki, a Finnish arranger, supplied a brief cinematic overture. Principal cello Joseph Johnson was notable among the orchestral soloists.
The concert was dedicated to the late Sir Andrew Davis. After a few words of appreciation, Gimeno led a heartfelt performance of Elgar’s Nimrod as a tribute.
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