March 27--The most valuable pinch-hitter on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra podium in recent years? That's an easy one: Edo de Waart.
The Dutch-born music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra filled in at the last minute for Riccardo Muti in January 2013 when illness forced the CSO music director to cancel his two subscription weeks, along with his participation in the CSO's subsequent Far East tour. De Waart sped to the rescue a second time in May of last year when he deputized for the ailing Vladimir Jurowski in another subscription program.
So it was incumbent on the CSO management to return the favor by inviting de Waart back through the front door. He got his payback on Thursday night at Symphony Center, where the program this time was entirely of his own making, not something he inherited. And he did respectably well with it. Not spectacular, perhaps, but respectable.
One of the works de Waart had directed in Muti's stead in 2013 was Brahms' Symphony No. 4. The fit between his Brahmsian approach and the CSO's venerable Brahms tradition was congenial enough that a return to that area of the repertory was in order. Sure enough, Thursday's concert concluded with a solid, unmannered account of the Brahms Third Symphony.
This is the least often performed of the German master's symphonies, perhaps a consequence of its being the only one of the four that ends quietly, denying conductors an audience-rousing finish. The most recent time it was played at these concerts was a dozen years ago.
Interpreters of the Third tend to fall into two camps: the interventionists, who maintain a malleable scheme of tempos and phrasings; and the classicists, who favor a steadier, more straightforward approach that adheres more strictly to the letter of the score. Daniel Barenboim is of the former persuasion, de Waart of the latter.
Observing the repeat in the first movement, the Dutch maestro kept structural rigor and lyrical flow in judicious proportion, here as in the rest of the work. Full but never overbearing brass and characterful woodwinds were set against robust strings. The dusky clarinet colorations Stephen Williamson brought to the slow movement were especially welcome.
It was the songful third movement that de Waart personalized the most, his batonless hands molding long lyrical lines that refused to be hurried. Listeners impatient for a bit more urgency here were rewarded by the vigorous intensity of the finale.
CSO audience members who can never get enough of the Mozart piano concertos are in luck. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida will return next week with her usual double header of Mozart concertos. And Thursday's concert brought Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C (K.503), with Orion Weiss making his subscription series debut as soloist.
DeWaart provided the pianist with relatively intimate support, reseating the orchestra according to the traditional classical plan, violins divided across the podium, violas placed inside left, woodwinds moved directly in front of the podium. His accompaniment was neat and restrained.
Restraint also marked Weiss' playing, which was notable for its limpid touch, clean runs and purling legato phrasing. The pianist supplied his own cadenza for the first movement, a stylish mashup of Mozart themes. The feline grace of his slow movement, supported by dulcet playing from the woodwinds, oboist Eugene Izotov in particular, felt apt.
But there was a bothersome failing: Weiss' tone struck this listener as excessively dainty, refined to the point of carrying little weight or depth. This kitten-on-the-keys style of Mozart pianism might suit a period performance, but it registered insufficiently against even a scaled-back CSO. Weiss is a fine, cultivated pianist, so one hopes the necessary adjustments can be made before Saturday's final performance.
Thursday marked composer and CSO emeritus conductor Pierre Boulez's 90th birthday, and you would think the CSO would have marked that milestone with something substantial in the way of new music. What de Waart brought us instead was a pleasant trifle, Michael Ippolito's "Nocturne" (2011).
The young American composer took his inspiration, in part, from Joan Miro's eponymous 1940 painting, surrounding the brass syncopations of the middle portion with misty soundscapes that quote other composers' nocturnes, most obviously Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, Opus 9. Ippolito knows his way around an orchestra -- give him that. But the piece is bland. The audience applauded composer, conductor and orchestra politely.
The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $33-$249; 312-294-3000, cso.org. A "Beyond the Score" presentation based on the Brahms Third Symphony will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday; $25-$131.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
