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Concert review: Sir Andrew Davis leads Toronto Symphony on a journey of the unexpected

By John Terauds on November 20, 2013

Soprano Erin Wall sings the Seven Early Songs of Alban Berg with the Toronto Symphony and conductor Sir Andrew davis at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night )Josh Clavir photo).
Soprano Erin Wall sings the Seven Early Songs of Alban Berg with the Toronto Symphony and conductor Sir Andrew Davis at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night )Josh Clavir photo).

A common thread in this week’s Toronto Symphony concerts could be something like tales of the unexpected. But in reality it’s a mixed programme that just barely holds together.

Toronto Symphony’s conductor laureate Sir Andrew Davis presented a programme featuring works of Ludwig van Beethoven in the first half and of Richard Strauss and Alban Berg in the second on Wednesday night at Roy Thomson Hall. There is a repeat performance on Saturday.

Each of the pieces plays with our expectations — not always in a positive way.

One might expect Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 to be a slam dunk, interest-wise, but it wasn’t. It’s a remarkably difficult symphony to pull off, with an eerie opening, a slow, almost still second movement and a repetitive third before the flourish of the finale.

Davis fleshed out the overall sound by highlighting all sorts of colours in the orchestration. He also helped the ensemble achieve some heavenly soft dynamics, but the interpretation came at the expense of momentum. It was too bad, because the orchestra was playing nicely and the Fourth is a great example of how Beethoven tinkered with the traditional model of the Classical symphony.

There is a reason why we don’t hear Beethoven’s Overture to The Consecration of a House, composed in haste five years before his death in 1827. It’s a clunky, ponderous piece of writing with an unbalanced orchestration — like an intricate bassoon solo that’s completely drowned out by other instruments.

The satisfaction metre swung to the positive side after intermission, when the orchestra flipped forward nearly a century into the expressively varied, tonally slippery musical world of Strauss and Berg.

Soprano Erin Wall, a Canadian who is making quite a name for herself on international opera stages — including the title role in Strauss’s Arabella at the Metropolitan Opera in April — sang the Berg songs, written before the young Viennese composer and his teacher Arnold Schoenberg turned their attentions toward atonal music.

The Seven Early Songs are introspective, concerned with love, and orchestrated with a remarkably voluptuous sensibility. Davis was in his element here, using his penchant for bumping up orchestral colour to great effect. Wall has a seductive voice, and she sang well, but she fell a hair short of fully embodying the sensuality of this music, which deserves to be heard more often.

The evening concluded in grand style, with Davis leading a compelling, vivacious, dynamically vivid performance of Richard Strauss’s 1895 tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks — a fine showcase for a fine orchestra, and an opportunity to highlight the virtuosity of various players, especially principal horn Neil Deland, who gets to play the title character’s musical theme.

The programme’s second half alone is worth the price of admission. Perhaps it’s worth lingering over dinner before giving the Berg and Strauss a try on Saturday night.

John Terauds

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