Fort Wayne Philharmonic opens 2024-2025 season
The Fort Wayne Philharmonic, conducted by music director Andrew Constantine, opened its 2024-25 season on Saturday evening in the Auer Performance Hall in Purdue Fort Wayne's Rhinehart Music Center with music by Kabalevsky, Prokofiev, and Mahler.
Following the traditional performance of the National Anthem for a season opener in Fort Wayne, Constantine led the Philharmonic in the overture to the three-act opera, "Colas Breugnon," by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904-1987). Although the opera, which was composed between 1936 and 1938, is virtually unknown in the U.S., the opera has enjoyed considerable popularity. Arturo Toscanini performed it in NBC Symphony broadcast concerts in 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, and 1952. He also led a remarkable rendition in a commercial RCA Victor session on April 8, 1946, that is noteworthy for its high-fidelity sound and attention to details. The work is quite animated, syncopated, and energetic.
Constantine ensured that the overture, which lasts less than five minutes, was played with great intensity and precision. It is a true miniature showpiece and we heard some very fine performances by the brass and strings. In many ways, the music is similar in style to the famous "Galop" from Kabalevsky's ballet score "The Comedians." So, this performance was a delightful way to begin the season, given the dazzling overall playing by the musicians.
Johanna Bourkova-Morunov, the orchestra's associate concertmaster, served as concertmaster for this concert and she had some memorable solos in the performances. The concertmaster is typically responsible for preparing the string section and the Philharmonic strings were outstanding throughout the concert.
Fellow Russian composer Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote several film scores during his prolific career. Among them is for a Russian film, "Lieutenant Kije," which was released in 1934. It is the story of the creation of a fictional Russian Army lieutenant due to a clerical error during the reign of Emperor Paul I in the late eighteenth century. The emperor receives regular reports on his officers and he is intrigued by Lieutenant Kije and wishes to meet him; those responsible for the error then come up with the excuse that Kije had disturbed the emperor's sleep and fled, so the emperor orders that he be sent to Siberia. Along the way, the emperor eventually pardons Kije and again requests a meeting. Ultimately, after a series of fictional reports, the emperor is told that Kije has died and he is given a grand funeral.
Prokofiev prepared one of his most delightful and most popular scores for the film, perfectly capturing the series of incidents that are either poignant or funny. From this score, Prokofiev prepared a five-movement suite that includes an optional baritone solo. Fritz Reiner's "Living Stereo" RCA Victor recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on March 2, 1957, helped to popularize the suite in the U.S.
The Philharmonic performance of Prokofiev's colorful score featured baritone solos by Benjamin Taylor, who has performed in both operas and concert works. He sang the Russian text with great feeling in the lyrical "Romance," which is the second movement. Here Prokofiev actually used a folk song, "The little gray dove is cooing." He also was the soloist in the fourth movement, "Troika," which depicts a ride across the snow in a sled pulled by three horses; the vocal line here is quite challenging and breathtaking since it is a rapid text much in the vein of Rossini's "Largo al factotum" in "The Barber of Seville."
The suite begins with "The Birth of Kije," which included some very fine performances by the Philharmonic's brass, winds, and strings, with Prokofiev's colorful use of percussion. There is a poignancy to this music that leads to an exciting march. All of this was quite delightful and enjoyable. Prokofiev returns to some of this music in the final movement, "The Burial of Kije," after recalling some of the highlights of the fictional lieutenant's life.
Besides the "Romance" and "Troika," I particularly enjoyed the performance of "Kije's Wedding," which has appropriate pomp and ceremony. There was splendid playing throughout this music.
After intermission, the Philharmonic performed the epic fifth symphony of the Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) in 1901 and 1902. Mahler had nearly died in February 1901 from a major hemorrhage; fortunately, he was successfully treated and recovered. Then, later that year, he met the beautiful, intelligent, and flirtatious Alma Schindler, and they were married on March 9, 1902. So, Mahler wrote one of his most popular works during this time.
The symphony is in five movements and typically runs well over an hour. Mahler divided the score into three parts; the first part includes the first and second movements, the second part includes the third movement, and the third part includes the fourth and fifth movements. The scoring is a very large orchestra, especially when it comes to percussion. This symphony is purely orchestral, so there are no vocal solos or choruses. The symphony was premiered in Cologne, Germany, by the Gurzenich Orchestra on Oct. 18, 1904. Mahler revised the score in 1904 and 1911; the final "critical" version of the score wasn't published until 2001 and that is generally used today.
Mahler's symphony begins with a very emotional funeral march that is generally slow-moving and overwhelming. There is one section in which the playing becomes more animated and more intense. If we thought the first movement was intense, the second movement was often filled with real anguish. Constantine ensured that the two related movements were built up to a fever pitch. There was no question these passages were played very strongly, with quite a bit of intensity, and were undoubtedly challenging for the musicians. It was exhausting to hear this music and I imagine it may have been exhausting for the musicians to play the first two movements.
Mahler offers quite a contrast in the scherzo in the third movement, which is built around his concept of a Viennese waltz. This, of course, is Mahler's reaction to the popularity of waltzes in the Austrian capital in the nineteenth century. Much as Maurice Ravel later created a bizarre form of the waltz in 1920, Mahler seems to be showing that an era was coming to an end. So, although the waltz here starts out rather joyous and exuberant, it becomes increasingly threatened by changing times. The challenge here was again from Mahler's demands on the musicians to play with real feeling. It was clear to me that the Philharmonic musicians played their best in this movement as well as the others.
The fourth movement is scored for strings along and is a really beautiful love song, which is generally believed to be Mahler's own personal reaction to meeting Alma Schindler. This is very eloquent, sustained, and lyrical. We heard some of the best performances by the Philharmonic's strings throughout this very moving "Adagietto." It is one thing to play the notes and quite another to play with feeling; listening to and watching the Philharmonic string players it was clear that they were really involved in this lovely piece.
