{"id":39510,"date":"2016-10-28T12:39:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T16:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=39510"},"modified":"2016-10-29T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T15:14:16","slug":"scrutiny-tso-kristjan-jarvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/10\/28\/scrutiny-tso-kristjan-jarvi\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Kristjan J\u00e4rvi And The TSO? We\u2019ll Get Back To You"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TSO
Toronto Symphony Orchestra (The Decades Project: 1920\u201329) with\u00a0Kristjan J\u00e4rvi (conductor), Denis Kozhukhin (piano),\u00a0Shane Kim and\u00a0Eri Kosaka (violins). At Roy Thomson Hall, Wed. Oct 26. (Photo: Arthur Mola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Probably not. This is as definite as I can be after the Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut on Wednesday of Kristjan J\u00e4rvi, who was not given a decent symphony (or equivalent) as a showcase for his abilities. Maybe this Estonian-American conductor is on the list of possible successors to Peter Oundjian as music director. Probably not.<\/span><\/p>\n

J\u00e4rvi satisfies many of the criteria that should not matter but do. He has movie-star looks. At 44 he is stationed conveniently midway in age between the subscribers, the TSO people would like to attract and those they need to keep.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has a pedigree: Neeme J\u00e4rvi is his father, and Paavo J\u00e4rvi is his older brother. He is handy with the microphone. As founder of the Absolute Ensemble (described in his biography as a \u201cNew York-based classical-hip-hop-jazz group\u201d) and the conductor of the soundtrack to The Hunger Games, he has all the fashionable anti-traditionalist credentials you could hope for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can he pull together a symphony? Have to get back to you on that one.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was no doubt that J\u00e4rvi could elicit the requisite colour and energy from Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly\u2019s H\u00e1ry J\u00e1nos Suite<\/em>. This sequence of character pieces is virtually a concerto for orchestra, and getting the players (including extras on the saxophone and cimbalom) to give it their extrovert best is half the battle won. At points, I wondered whether the extravagant podium movements (including the occasional two-foot liftoff) were strictly necessary, but they undoubtedly helped in securing audience approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was more troubled by J\u00e4rvi\u2019s showboating in Rachmaninoff\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 4, a score that needs care and balance to restore its rightful place in the repertoire. Here it sounded disorganized; the phrases faintly characterized despite (or because of) all the circle-drawing and hip-swinging from the podium. Denis Kozhukhin, a Russian also making his TSO debut, pounded out the rising chordal theme mechanically. Nor did he find many depths in the Largo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Possibly this pony-tailed winner of the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition was not in a competitive mood. He was buried by the orchestra through much of Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue<\/em> in Ferde Grof\u00e9’s 1942 orchestration. Thank heaven for those cadenzas. Not that the TSO gave no pleasure: The sardonic muted trumpet and trombone each got a laugh, and rightly so.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kristjan
Kristjan J\u00e4rvi (conductor), Shane Kim and Eri Kosaka (violins). (Photo: Arthur Mola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The concert began with Steve Reich\u2019s Duet for Two Violins and Strings<\/em> of 1994, a harmless piece that pits canons in the solo parts (as played by TSO musicians Eri Kosaka and Shane Kim) against the usual mix of methodical chugging and long tones from the lower strings. In the program note, we read that the New York Times \u201crecently\u201d placed Reich \u201camong the great composers of the century.\u201d Since this phrase is pulled from a Richard Taruskin article of 1997 (where it is linked to an assessment of the 1988 composition Different Trains), I think its billing as some kind of recent editorial endorsement, \u00e0 la Hillary Clinton, is rather misleading.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was questionable annotation also from J\u00e4rvi himself, who told the audience (accurately) that Rachmaninoff was in the audience at Aeolian Hall in New York for the 1924 premiere of the Gershwin. We cannot know for sure where J\u00e4rvi got the idea that the Russian composer, very much his own man, wrote the Fourth Concerto in response to Rhapsody in Blue<\/em>, but I see that this daft notion is promulgated in the long-winded Wikipedia entry<\/a> on the work. Buyer beware.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kod\u00e1ly ended the program, which was classified, with little justification, as part of the \u201cDecades Project.\u201d Asking for, and getting, more applause from the Roy Thomson Hall regulars, J\u00e4rvi presented the planned-in-advance encore: the fourth movement from the Hungarian Dance Suite Op. 18<\/em> of Le\u00f3 Weiner (1885-1960), a Hungarian educator and contemporary of Kod\u00e1ly (1882-1968). Brilliant and blazing, it was a testament to the virtuosity of the orchestra, which can hardly have been familiar with the piece.<\/span><\/p>\n

People left happy. \u201cHe has so much personality,\u201d I heard one woman of late middle age say as she filed out of the hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hmm. Probably not. Maybe.<\/span><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? F<\/em>ollow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span>\u00a0or Twitter<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Kristjan J\u00e4rvi makes his Toronto Symphony Orchestra debut with a sampling of music from, and inspired by the \u201cRoaring Twenties\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":39511,"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":[6152,6445,6447,6444,6446,3359,3403],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/10\/AM5_3425.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-ahg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39510"}],"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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39510"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39628,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39510\/revisions\/39628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39510"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=39510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}