{"id":37001,"date":"2016-05-28T14:42:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T18:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37001"},"modified":"2016-05-28T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T18:42:01","slug":"scrutiny-sir-andrew-davis-in-glorious-form-at-tso-alpine-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/05\/28\/scrutiny-sir-andrew-davis-in-glorious-form-at-tso-alpine-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Sir Andrew Davis in Glorious Form at TSO Alpine Symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sir
Sir Andrew Davis, TSO (Photo: Malcolm Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The return of Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is always a highly anticipated event.\u00a0 And for good reason \u2014 Sir Andrew\u2019s tenure with the TSO from 1975 to 1988 was the second longest, after Sir Ernest MacMillan (1931 to 1956). With the recently announced departure of Conductor Peter Oundjian at the end of the 2016-17 season, he will match \u2014 but not surpass \u2014 Sir Andrew in terms of longevity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been an audience member of the TSO as early as the late 1960\u2019s with Seiji Ozawa in those Massey Hall years. Heard all the subsequent conductors from Karel An\u010derl, Victor Feldbrill, Sir Andrew, G\u00fcnther Herbig, Jukka-Pekka Saraste on down to the current Oundjian. I\u2019ll stick my neck out and say Sir Andrew Davis is arguably the most beloved. Others may be equally great when it comes to conducting, but I think the Toronto audiences have a soft spot for Sir Andrew. I was fortunate enough to be in the audience that one time when a few orchestra musicians brought onstage (!) a canoe as a gift to their Maestro!\u00a0 That says it all\u2026<\/p>\n

It would be difficult for Davis to top his Verdi Requiem<\/em> a year ago, a piece that\u2019s very dear to the heart of voice fans like me. And how about that great cast! \u00a0This time around, if he doesn\u2019t erase the memories of last season\u2019s Verdi Requiem<\/em>, it is at least as enjoyable. I attended the show on Thursday. \u00a0Though not sold out, it was a very good crowd.\u00a0 I have to say I\u2019m really impressed with the demographics of the Symphony attendees, quite a lot of young people. With Sound Check, maybe they don\u2019t pay full price, but getting young people to come to the Symphony is not easy. I applaud the TSO for that.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan
Jonathan Crow (violin), Joseph Johnson (cello) (Photo: Malcolm Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was quite a musical feast. I went to the \u201cpre-concert concert\u201d with TSO Concertmaster Jonathan Crow and Principal Cello Joseph Johnson playing Zoltan Kodaly\u2019s Duo for Violin and Cello<\/em>. The two gents played it with gorgeous tone and fully brought out the inherent lyricism of the piece, with its many folk motifs. It certainly put me in the right mood for the evening. The concert proper opened with Ives\u2019 work \u201cDecoration Day\u201d from New England Holidays<\/em>, given it\u2019s the American Memorial Day weekend. A bit episodic and jarring with the changes of mood, but that\u2019s the whole point \u2014 a struggle between solemnity of remembrance and the joy of celebration.\u00a0 Followed by Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s Taras Bulba<\/em>. I have to confess I am not a big fan \u2014 I find it lacks the Czech composer\u2019s uniquely recognisable musical idiom. That said, it\u2019s a striking work, with an interesting if sad story. The third piece was the transcendental Sospiri<\/em> by Sir Edward Elgar. Sir Andrew was right in his element with Elgar, and the TSO played it with uncommon, other-worldly beauty. If only it were longer than 5 minutes!<\/p>\n

I attended the intermission feature where two Swiss Alpenhorn players, Eva Hajda and Rene Waelti, played their unique instruments. As a Wagner and Strauss fan, I am familiar with the Alpenhorn, but this was the first time I saw it up close. The stories they told about other people\u2019s reactions to their playing were priceless! At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I heard a few sour notes in their playing of the three short snippets.\u00a0 Then I realised that the only way to control the pitch is with the lips!\u00a0 Well, they have my admiration. This intermission feature certainly put me in the mood for the second half\u2019s Alpine Symphony<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Strauss tone poem, Eine Alpensinfonie Op. 64<\/em> is quintessentially Richard Strauss. It\u2019s not programmed all that often probably because of the huge resources required \u2014 as they say, everything and the kitchen sink when it comes to instruments! \u00a0The score is thrilling. I am enthralled every time I hear it, with 90 (or more) musicians thundering away on stage, the wind machine going full force during the \u201cstorm.\u201d Part of my delight is the strong affinity in the orchestration and the harmonic idiom to his various operas, particularly Rosenkavalier, Die Liebe der Dane, <\/em>and maybe a bit of Arabella,<\/em> Daphne<\/em> and Schweigsame Frau <\/em>thrown in. This was the last of Strauss\u2019s tone poems when he switched his attention to composing operas, which explains the resemblance. Also very striking are the many strong imageries of nature throughout the piece. Apparently as a young man, Strauss got lost in the mountains and was caught in a rainstorm, which accounts for the extremely vivid imageries in the music \u2014 mind you, the huge wind machine helped a lot!\u00a0 Sir Andrew and the TSO gave an absolutely scintillating account of the magnificent score. There\u2019s one more performance this evening. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis leads the Toronto Symphony Orchestra through high-reaching works by Ives, Jan\u00e1\u010dek, Elgar, and Strauss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,76,19,52],"tags":[6172,5913,3032,3360],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/Sir_Andrew_Davis_TSO_5_Malcolm_Cook_photo.jpg.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9CN","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001"}],"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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37001"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37008,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001\/revisions\/37008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37001"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}