Dec. 05--Beneath the crisp and direct podium demeanor of Ingo Metzmacher lurks the sensibility of a music professor.
The German conductor, who is returning to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription series this weekend after an absence of 10 years, appears to be particularly interested in showing us how music is made, exposing its moving parts and putting them together with a clarity that reflects a sharp mind for musical analysis.
This didactic bent yielded results that were sometimes instructive and compelling, sometimes problematic, in the all-Russian program he led Thursday night at a conspicuously underpopulated Orchestra Hall.
Metzmacher has achieved his most convincing CSO performances in the past on behalf of the 20th century orchestral repertory. You would expect as much from a musician who once led a famous series of concerts and recordings in Germany called "Who's Afraid of the 20th Century?," in addition to writing a book titled "Don't Be Afraid of New Sounds."
So the works by Shostakovich and Stravinsky -- from opposite ends of the 20th Century -- at the core of Metzmacher's program found him on home territory, one might say.
Shostakovich's hourlong Symphony No. 11 ("The Year 1905"), which anchored Thursday's concert, summoned mixed reactions from me, as does this sprawling, uneven score whenever I hear it.
A programmatic symphony depicting the massacre of unarmed workers in czarist St. Petersburg -- a failed revolution that led directly to the October Revolution of 1917 that established the Soviet Union -- the 11th Symphony is a huge arch that begins in frozen-dawn stillness and ends in deafening martial clamor. Most of its themes are derived from 19th century revolutionary songs familiar to every Russian audience member.
The score has always divided critical opinion. Is this merely high-grade socialist-realist poster music? Film music without the film? Or does it signify something deeper, ineffable tragedy and unimaginable human suffering writ large? One may deplore the flaws and fustian while acknowledging the power of its finest pages.
Metzmacher took pains to build hushed, ominous atmosphere in the opening movement, "The Palace Square," which unfortunately was marred by a flubbed solo from the principal trumpeter, Christopher Martin, who has had better nights. No greater contrast could be imagined than that of the ferocious battle music of the second movement ("The Ninth of January") and the elegiac quiet of the third ("Eternal Memory"), a grieving adagio the measured Metzmacher couldn't quite hold together.
Scott Hostetler's eloquent English horn solo offered aural balm amid the noisy insistence of the finale ("The Alarm"), a marchlike perpetual-motion that finds Shostakovich at his most hectoring. Thursday's reading brought plenty of sound and fury without their corollary, genuine intensity of feeling. At least the deep tolling of a pair of massive Russian bells really did sound like a tocsin.
I recall the composer's friend and colleague Mstislav Rostropovich, who wasn't half the conductor Metzmacher is, getting far more out of even the most blatant pages of this symphony here. The CSO players, particularly the brass and percussion, summoned as much crunching corporate weight and brilliance as the guest conductor asked for.
The performance of Stravinsky's "Petrushka," heard earlier, carried many of the same virtues and liabilities.
Metzmacher, to his credit, sharpened the rhythmic edges and defined the sumptuous textures of the original 1911 orchestration. Symphonic sweep prevailed over balletic atmosphere. The CSO never fails to provide the cut and bite such music demands, and there was no holding back on those qualities Thursday. Too bad overly careful pacing leached some sections of verve and spontaneity.
Much the same problem also deprived a brief suite of selections from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" ballet of their wonted charm. The Christmas wreaths and holiday bunting decorating the stage proved more festive.
The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $29-$216; 312-294-3000, cso.org.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
Twitter @jvonrhein
