{"id":2620,"date":"2012-03-29T22:14:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T03:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2012-03-29T22:14:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T03:14:35","slug":"review-former-toronto-symphony-orchestra-music-director-jukka-pekka-saraste-serves-up-bowl-of-mushy-peas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/03\/29\/review-former-toronto-symphony-orchestra-music-director-jukka-pekka-saraste-serves-up-bowl-of-mushy-peas\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Former Toronto Symphony Orchestra music director Jukka-Pekka Saraste serves up bowl of mushy peas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Former music director Jukka-Pekka Saraste joins the Toronto Symphony Orchestra this week.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You know the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has come a long way over the past decade when a competent concert is nowhere near good enough anymore.<\/p>\n

That sentiment became amply clear in the company of former music director, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, on Thursday night at Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n

The conductor, orchestra and special guest, Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, all did a respectable job. But\u00a0they needed to sparkle rather than simply be okay, if they wanted to measure up to the standard the orchestra sets at its concerts these days.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem can be attributed to three works long on atmosphere but, without a strong vision from the person wielding the baton, having too much potential for coming up short on dramatic flair.<\/p>\n

The first piece, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius\u2019s 1926 tone poem Tapiola<\/em>, is a chilly stroll in some darkly forbidding woods. It has no greater purpose than to paint interesting colours with different sections of the orchestra.<\/p>\n

Saraste led a performance that had no desire to follow or find an obvious destination, and which repeatedly neglected the violins in favour of deeper-sounding sections of the ensemble.<\/p>\n

In the closing piece, the familiar, four-movement Symphony No. 3<\/em> composed in 1883 by Johannes Brahms, Saraste was more concerned with highlighting little details over giving the work a larger shape or sense of momentum.<\/p>\n

The result was pretty, but rarely striking; competent, but certainly not arresting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pekka Kuusisto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kuusisto, the evening\u2019s violin soloist, is a proven firecracker whose fuse was a bit soggy on Thursday night, as he needed the help of a score to get through Sergei Prokofiev\u2019s World War I-era Violin Concerto No. 1<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although the piece contains many technical hurdles, they are cloaked in light musical forms that emphasize lyricism over fire.<\/p>\n

Kuusisto\u2019s playing, although finely nuanced and note-perfect, rarely rose beyond the printed score. The soloist’s personality was on standby while Saraste kept the orchestra on a low simmer through much of the three-movement work.<\/p>\n

The result was a bowl of tasty, mushy peas, rather than something dramatic or memorable.<\/p>\n

This was a concert that used top-of-the-line talent but obtained middle-of-the-road results.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with middling, but in a city filled with fine musical options on any night of the week \u2013 and with a catalogue of electrifying performances already behind it this season \u2013 the Toronto Symphony can do better than this.<\/p>\n

The program repeats Saturday evening at Roy Thomson Hall. Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has come a long way over the past decade when a competent concert is nowhere near good enough anymore. That sentiment became amply clear in the company of former music director, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, on Thursday night at Roy Thomson Hall. The conductor, orchestra and special guest, Finnish violinist Pekka […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[76,19,36,52,60,63,68],"tags":[544,1799,2591,2713,6471,3007,3360,3498],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/saraste.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-Gg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}