Antonín Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53; Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor. Jan Mráček violin, Semyon Bychkov conductor, Czech Philharmonic. Koerner Hall, Toronto; December 8, 2024.
So this must be what ‘Stendahl Syndrome’ — the 19th-century author’s psycho-physical reaction to the beauty of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence — feels like. The soundworld of the Czech Philharmonic, led by their current Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, was no less sublime to me than the Italian masterpiece to the great Frenchman.
The occasion was perfectly set up, since this was the end of the orchestra’s two-stop North American tour, following Carnegie Hall, where they gave three concerts last week. With its warm, vibrant acoustics and intimate scale, the Koerner Hall provided the ideal venue. Not only that, but this was the rounding up of the Czech Phil’s Czech year of music — a tradition established since the 1924 centenary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, and revisited every decade in years ending in 4, which happens to mark other important milestones of Czech music, such as Smetana’s death in 1884, Janáček’s birth in 1854, and Dvořák’s death in1904.
The New York City and Toronto concerts were accordingly celebrations of all things Czech and Bohemian (which is where Mahler fits in, since he was born in Bohemia and only moved to Vienna in his mid-teens).
Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A minor
The orchestra brought with them all three Dvořák concertos (for piano, violin and cello) and paired these with larger orchestra (and choral) works for the tour. Alas, the pair of Toronto concerts did not include Yo-Yo Ma in the much-loved cello concerto, nor Janáček’s stupendous Glagolitic Mass. Instead of yet another Grammy Award winner (Gil Shaham) as the soloist in the Violin Concerto, we heard Jan Mráček, the orchestra’s youthful concertmaster (the night before, Daniil Trifonov had given a dazzling rendition of the lesser-known Piano Concerto).
The performance was strong in every respect, but especially so in terms of esprit de corps. There was no ego on display, and some might even have found the first solo bars unduly restrained; yet Mráček’s warm, noble tone, while naturally blending with the orchestra, soon acquired the necessary flair and swagger.
Here was a reminder, if we needed it, that the mercurial shapeshifting first movement is a wonder of constant self-reinvention. The Adagio ma non troppo was heartbreakingly tender and sublime, with Bychkov almost literally caressing each note and dispensing with the baton in order to encourage maximum suppleness. The spirited finale put Czech national colours on full display, evoking the spirit of the composer’s Slavonic Dances.
Plenty of smiles were exchanged between the soloist and his colleagues, and the whole thing felt like a convivial get-together, with Bychkov a loving and caring host, gently facilitating rather than forcing his guests. Even the encore had a moment of playful camaraderie, as Mráček left the final left-hand pizzicato to the evening’s concertmaster, Jiří Vodička.
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor
The second half of the concert was even more in need of a Stendahl-style Art Attack warning. This was Mahler’s Fifth Symphony at its rawest, its most exuberant, its most transcendental, with a kaleidoscopic display of colour and emotions, and a sense of architecture to rival any Italian Renaissance monument.
From the solemn, yet larger-than-life trumpet calls, to the chilling control and resistance of the funeral procession in the first movement, to the ferocious urgency and hair-raising eruptions of the second, to the ghostly strings and haunted horn obbligato of the Scherzo, and finally to the triumphant emergence of life from the darkness and death in the finale, this was an astonishing fusion of virtuosity and insight. Not forgetting that most exquisite of musical love letters, the famous Adagietto.
With Jana Boušková’s sublime harp accompaniment (placed centre-staged), silky strings, and Bychkov’s balletic soft hands, this was one of those heart-stoppingly celestial experiences where time stands still.
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