At the Schermerhorn
Ray Chen, Sibelius and Shostakovich
On November 22nd and 23rd the Nashville Symphony presented a wonderful concert featuring Dmitri Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony (1953), Antonin Dvořák’s Carnival Overture (1891) and Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto (1905) featuring soloist Ray Chen.
The evening opened with Dvořák’s exuberant Overture depicting a “lonely wanderer” who stumbles upon a city in the wilderness where “a carnival is in full swing.” Reminiscent of the Slavonic Dances we heard in Nashville only last week, the overture begins with a similarly dizzying theme that soon transitions to a passionate secondary theme in this sonata variant work. Maestro Guerrero connected this well to the second theme, which depicts a pair of lovers who are drawn away from the crowd–beautifully providing specifics to the opening’s ambiguity. Before long, the lovers find themselves in a pastoral scene (this interrupts the progression to a development section) during which Nashville’s magnificent woodwinds enjoyed a moment in the sun. The movement is beautiful, but short, perhaps some day Nashville will perform the other two overtures that Dvorak paired it with? One can hope!
After a brief pause, Ray Chen came onstage to perform Sibelius’s concerto with the orchestra. Chen is a 21st century virtuoso, with a huge social media presence (over a million followers on Instagram), an equally popular youtube channel (check out the Classical vs. Pop competition here), an appearance on Mozart in the Jungle, and a tremendous, indeed almost unfair, share of personal charisma. In his performance of the Sibelius, the most difficult portions, like the ricochet section of the first movement’s cadenza, were met with smiling intensity. It is important to not let the gloss distract from Chen’s substance. The most beautiful, lugubrious of Sibelius’ themes were almost over the top in intensity and romanticism, and the apparent ease with which he pulled off the whole piece (even the triple stops in the third movement) was fantastic. His encore, a remarkable rendition of the Waltzing Matilda balanced sincerity, bravura and nostalgia for the Taiwanese Australian violinist.
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Shostakovich’s 10th symphony, a remarkable shift to serious, modernist gravity from Sibelius’ chimerical Romanticism. In a season full of masterworks for conductor and orchestra, this is surely one of the highlights, and it’s been a “Shostakovich week” here in Nashville with performances of the Fourth (by the Danish Quartet), Seventh and Ninth Quartets (by members of the Symphony in a Community Chamber Concert). This was coupled for me with just a bit of trepidation, because, from the orchestra’s perspective, the Sibelius felt slightly balkanized among movements and between sections. This is no big deal when the attention is on the soloist, but for Shostakovich’s colossal masterpiece, cohesion is a sine qua non—Thankfully, the orchestra blew us away!
I’ve always been a fan of Shostakovich’s metamorphoses in the huge first movement of his tenth symphony, and Guerrero achieved an interpretation here with the perfect measure of patience and intensity. It was a bit less visceral than say, Andris Nelson’s recording with the BSO and hearkening back to the darker inevitability of those cold Soviet-era recordings—but perhaps that is contemporary geopolitical events chilling my ears? For the Scherzo, and everyone loves this scherzo, Guerrero brought his characteristic passion to this “…portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking.” The orchestra responded with a fierce and driving performance that was violent yet still fragile in its anger.
The Allegretto, my least favorite movement because, among other things, the autograph motto has always felt somewhat like a defiant gimmick and in this work lacks the kind of connection with Namirov’s theme that one would expect a composer to write for a woman he admired. Shostakovich’s cynicism is always more powerful, direct and engrossing than his sincerity. The fourth movement, with deserved special mention of the reeds, especially the triumphantly lighthearted clarinet, was a remarkable success.
As I left, I wondered how Guerrero must feel about his impending departure. This Orchestra is nothing like the one that Michael Charry grew into bankruptcy in the ‘80s. Nor is it the Orchestra that Schermerhorn lifted with Ingram’s bootstraps (although you can sense that influence is somewhere the background!). This is an orchestra that has performed world-class interpretations of the finest works in the symphonic canon and earned a reputation for consistent and important interpretations of contemporary American Classical Music through recordings and awards. It is a testament to Guerrero’s courage that he is leaving this Symphony at its historic height (but certainly not its ceiling!). I hope that the search committee tasked with finding the Maestro’s replacement, whoever they may be, does their work well. The Symphony will return in the New Year with “Manny Plays Mozart” on January 9-11, tickets here.
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Joseph E. Morgan is a father of two, husband, teacher and recovering guitarist in Middle Tennessee.
