Feb. 12--Gennady Rozhdestvensky is the gift that keeps on giving to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its audience.
Having led the orchestra in superb readings of two Shostakovich symphonies last week, the venerable Russian conductor was back on the podium Thursday night to lead, again superbly, a more diverse program as podium replacement for Riccardo Muti, who had withdrawn from his winter residency this month to recuperate from recent hip surgery.
Rozhdestvensky originally was to have taken over Muti's scheduled program intact, but one of the four works, Gyorgy Ligeti's "Ramifications," was dropped at the last minute, without explanation. No doubt its technical difficulties had much, if not everything, to do with the decision to substitute Sibelius' less demanding "Rakastava," one of three contrasting string orchestra pieces that surround Mozart's Clarinet Concerto at the weekend subscription concerts in Symphony Center.
It has taken a week for the orchestra musicians to fully settle into a comfortable working rapport with the 84-year-old conductor. They know his quirks and appreciate his immense strengths and can read his ideas even when he's not waving his mile-long baton in their immediate vicinity. And they deliver playing of a quality and insight that bears the respect this towering musician so naturally inspires in symphony players everywhere.
The CSO pretty much ignored Sibelius during the Finnish composer's 2015 sesquicentennial, so the appearance of the brief, wordless song cycle "Rakastava" ("The Lover") and, next month, the Second Symphony, are most welcome. Rozhdestvensky proved himself a master of "Rakastava's" serene lyrical unfolding. His reading was full of atmosphere, yet tiny details, such as the six notes of the triangle in the second movement (played by timpanist David Herbert), registered with the utmost Nordic clarity.
The ability of the CSO strings to retain tonal quality at the softest dynamic levels also gave their reading of Estonian master Arvo Part's "Orient Occident" (1999-2000) much of its distinction. The depth of the string sonorities, around which curls a kind of sinuous monody and sliding pitches derived from Indian ensemble music, is rather a departure from Part's austere, neo-medieval manner. The music lasts only seven minutes but every minute gesture speaks volumes: a perfect little musical gem.
Rozhdestvensky, with his immense repertory, has long advocated for Part's music and he drew a finely coordinated account from his string players. The audience held off showing its appreciation until a sidelong glance from the maestro gave them permission to do so.
He also is a caring accompanist, proving as much in the discreet and attentive backing he provided CSO principal clarinet Stephen Williamson in the Mozart concerto. This was the latter's solo debut with the orchestra and he could hardly have chosen a work better suited to his considerable abilities.
One admired the rippling ease of his ascents to the high register and deep into the clarinet's mellow chalumeau depths, along with the rich, purling quality of his sound in general. That said, the finale felt a bit too manicured for my taste, lacking the final degree of playful spontaneity.
And Williamson got off to a false start very briefly at the beginning of the Adagio slow movement, perhaps unconsciously reverting to the similar opening of the Larghetto movement of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet (also in A major), which he had played with Music Institute of Chicago Academy students the previous week. Despite the slip, his smooth, shapely playing was roundly applauded by the audience and his CSO colleagues.
Rozhdestvensky was back on native musical terrain with Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, which closed the program. The performance was thoroughly Russian in depth of sound matched to intensity of feeling and openhearted lyrical response. Rozhdestvensky's mother was one of the leading singers of Soviet-era Russia and he understands the strong melodic impetus that informs all Russian music. Nowhere did this understanding draw more committed playing than in the Elegy third movement, here musical tragedy writ large. Too bad scattered, premature applause nearly shattered the plaintive effect before the strings were able to launch into the folkish finale.
The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $36-$255; 312-294-3000, www.cso.org
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.
jvonrhein@tribpub.com
