{"id":111044,"date":"2025-01-16T16:29:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=111044"},"modified":"2025-01-17T07:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T12:00:03","slug":"scrutiny-everything-illuminated-emanuel-ax-toronto-symphony-commemorate-sir-andrew-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/01\/16\/scrutiny-everything-illuminated-emanuel-ax-toronto-symphony-commemorate-sir-andrew-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Everything Is Illuminated: Emanuel Ax And The Toronto Symphony Commemorate Sir Andrew Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L:
L: Conductor Andrew Manze (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega); R: Pianist Emanuel Ax (Photo: Lisa Marie Mazzucco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503; R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30. Andrew Manze, conductor; Emanuel Ax, piano. January 15, 2025 at Roy Thomson Hall. Continues January 18 & 19; tickets here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

From heavenly Mozart to cosmic Strauss via quietly euphoric Tippett \u2014 another impeccable program from the Toronto Symphony. This time we owed the occasion to the orchestra\u2019s late Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis, who planned it but alas did not live to realize it. The baton instead passed to the Baroque violinist-turned-conductor Andrew Manze, who in his opening words dedicated the concert to the memory of Sir Andrew, reminding us of his selfless championing of Tippett.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to see why Tippett\u2019s 1939 Concerto for Double String Orchestra would actually need special advocacy. This is music that bounds off the page from the very first note, and doesn\u2019t stop surprising and delighting until the very last. It is also a treat to watch. Cut in half and seated stereophonically, the TSO strings resembled the musical equivalent of the House of Commons, with Manze\u2019s florid enthusiasm qualifying him for the role of an interventionist Speaker. To see and hear the double basses on either side of the platform bouncing ideas off each other was just one among many treats.<\/p>\n

With its invigorating rhythmic energy and drive, the Concerto is also proof that counterpoint can be fun. The programme notes suggested Jung and T.S. Eliot as intellectual godfathers. But, their input is secondary to the warmth and humanity that suffuses all of Tippett\u2019s music, nowhere more so than in the Concerto\u2019s poignant second movement. With its fondly recollected folk tunes and subtly placed dissonances, this is English pastoralism at its most inspiring, free from the slightest hint of sentimentality or self-indulgence.<\/p>\n

Strauss & Mozart<\/h3>\n

Jungian dualities were echoed in Strauss\u2019s Nietzsche-based, man-versus-nature Also Sprach Zarathustra in the second half. This is the piece hijacked by Stanley Kubrick in one of the most effective cinematographic appropriations of pre-composed classical music. Kubrick reduced the entire 32-minute tone poem to its opening sunrise theme. So, it wasn\u2019t surprising to hear smatterings of applause in the wrong place (after the mid-way return of that theme). Nor was it unexpected that Strauss\u2019s quietly ambivalent ending should have met with a somewhat subdued audience response.<\/p>\n

The performance deserved better. If the famous opening felt a little underwhelming, that\u2019s partly because Manze was sticking close to the score. Those three ascending trumpet notes are marked pianissimo, with no crescendo. Manze adhered to that and to the single forte for the following accented chords. Viscerally, then, this was no match for Karajan\u2019s 1973 definitive recording (not the mock 1959 one used for the film), and Manze could certainly have been more spacious with the rest of the introduction. Elsewhere, though, his fluid pacing helped move the work\u2019s narrative smoothly forward. Solos, notably the violin in the Dance-Song episode, were confident and idiomatic, showcasing the orchestra\u2019s quality as effectively as any of the concertos for orchestra that are a running theme of the season.<\/p>\n

The prize for the most magical orchestral solo of the evening, however, should be shared between the flute and oboe in the finale of Mozart\u2019s C major Piano Concerto, K503. Pianists may come and pianists may go, to paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel. In today\u2019s world of young and flashy stardom, to be in the presence of a seasoned master with such self-effacing charm as Emanuel Ax \u2014 longtime partner of the TSO; and indeed of Sir Andrew Davis \u2014 is a treat and a half.<\/p>\n

Ax\u2019s tone was warm and rounded, yet at the same time light and transparent, and his phrasing was a masterclass in seamless flow and refined nuance. Nothing was exaggerated or mannered. Rather, each of Mozart\u2019s ingenious rhythmic, polyphonic, and harmonic adventures was subtly acknowledged, with Manze and the TSO in close, empathetic attendance, all the way to that inspired exchange between piano, flute and oboe \u2014 as breathtaking as any of the ensemble scenes in Mozart\u2019s operas.<\/p>\n

It was touching to see Ax\u2019s discreet fist-bump towards the woodwinds as he returned to the platform to receive his just acclaim. His short eulogy for Sir Andrew and a sublime rendition of Schumann\u2019s Arabesque as encore rounded off a truly moving commemoration of the orchestra\u2019s late Music Director.<\/p>\n

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From heavenly Mozart to cosmic Strauss via quietly euphoric Tippett \u2014 another impeccable program from the Toronto Symphony with Emanuel Ax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":111047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,76,19,41221,47,52,63],"tags":[1143,5644],"yst_prominent_words":[6918,18470,6715,20366,8079,6915,6913,8288,6827],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/01\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-01-16T161200.495.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-sT2","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111044"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111055,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111044\/revisions\/111055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111044"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=111044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}