On December 5th, 6th, and 7th, 2024, Finnish Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and German-Canadian guest cellist Johannes Moser in a diverse program of concert music at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
Edvard Grieg’s Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, Op. 46, 1888, is a 4-movement 13-minute piece, achingly lovely and familiar to many listeners; the first movement, Morning Mood is one of Grieg’s best-known compositions. An emotional, dreamy flute solo establishes the main theme before being overtaken by oboe. Sonorous strings play in clear accompaniment crafting a call to the rural nature of the composer’s homeland of Norway.
The second movement, Ase’s Death, captures a strong tonal shift, describing the tragic demise of Peer Gynt’s mother. This segment is powerful, dense and deep, opening with chords played in the strings. Poignant pauses are then effected between sequences of chords, louder by degrees.
The third movement, Anitra’s Dance, is a celebratory and sensual waltz-like scene for a chieftain’s daughter; fast-paced graceful strings joined by the triangle reproduce the colorful motif.
The final movement of the suite, the immediately recognizable In the Hall of the Mountain King, is meant to portray a scampering of gnomes chasing after Peer Gynt; as the melody repeats, it ascends aggressively, whirling about the orchestra. A very exciting work, crafted with extensive use of bass and high range winds coupled with thrilling percussion sounds-crashing cymbals!- bring the work to a satisfying conclusion.
Witold Lutoslawski’s 23-minute Cello Concerto, 1969-70, is a strikingly modern and ingenious continuous movement (attacca) composition contrived of many simultaneous strands. The piece seems carefully constructed to invite improvisation; however, it is highly controlled, a woven montage of sound.
Moser, a brilliant, enthralled soloist, introduces the work alone, lingering outside the orchestral entrance, which comes in with a bolt of trumpets. There is no following dialogue, no familiar call and response between cello and ensemble. Instead, a struggle to achieve dominance unfolds, trumpets interjecting, full sounding brass climaxes, startling percussive portions, and all throughout, the staccato cello deftly leads.
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 13, 1895, is a 41-minute seemingly haunted elegy to Russian culture, that dark, enigmatic, self-conscious yearning for recognition, a brooding legacy.
The first movement is introduced via 7 bars which develop the entire Symphony, including the composer’s often iterated Dies irae, or chant for the dead. The piece is imbued with a sense of fatalism and even confusion, a large, sometimes rambling, yet oddly beautiful and quite energetic work; the tightly controlled Orchestra came together for the culmination in a rousing sonic finale.
This is an Orchestra that in any size ensemble, with any soloist, will master and excel in presentation. Always phrasing beautifully, the CSO joins in bravura expressiveness. Slobodeniouk is a confident, calm Maestro, whether in the beloved lyrical Grieg, the unusual repartee of the Lutoslawski, or the drawn-out drama of the Rachmaninoff, he gave clear direction and drew forth balanced textures and colors.
All photos by Todd Rosenberg
For information and tickets to all the fine programming of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, go to www.cso.org
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