Chicago Classical Review

A cornerstone 19th-century concerto was framed by a pair of rarely heard works at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s program Thursday night.

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider was on the podium, opening a two-week stand. The Danish-born musician missed his most recent CSO assignment last May due to a leg injury. On Thursday the conductor-violinist brought his usual convivial podium presence to a program that provided some welcome backspin on two familiar composers.

The concert led off with the Overture to Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade. The Danish composer’s 1906 opera is the beloved, if unofficial, national opera of Denmark, a spirited Mozartian comedy of mistaken identities that culminates at a masked ball. The brief curtain-raiser—written in Mozart-like fashion by Nielsen at the last minute—is wholly delightful, and Szeps-Znaider led a rollicking performance that brought out its rustic charm, galumphing humor and effervescent high spirits. 

Amazingly, this was the Overture’s first appearance at a CSO subscription concert. Gregory Hughes conducted the belated Chicago theatrical premiere of Maskarade in a game if rough-edged performance a dozen years ago. It’s time for this wonderful opera to be heard again on a local stage.

It’s a rare occasion that raises a performance of Antonin Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor—the most celebrated and often-played work in the genre—out of the commonplace of solid but unmemorable renderings the work usually gets.

Oddly that’s just what happened when Jian Wang returned to perform the Czech composer’s autumnal showpiece. The Chinese cellist made an impressive CSO debut three years (also with Szeps-Znaider on the podium) in Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo. 

In the more expansive Dvořák work, Wang offered a strikingly fresh and compelling performance. Wang’s individual sound—burnished yet with a lean, sinewy middle range and sweetness on top—consistently beguiled the ear. From his first entrance there was a tense, nervy quality to his playing in quick, dramatic passages. Yet that was balanced by an intimate expressive quality in the moments of dark lyricism, the cellist often drawing out his solos in expansive fashion.

The slow movement was a tender reverie in Wang’s hands, played with hushed poise and searching expression. 

He brought a tough, determined edge to the final movement and ample excitement, even if not every note in the more bravura solo passages was hit dead center. In the reflective final section, Wang’s hushed elegiac expression and dynamic sensitivity were most  affecting, before a final confident burst at the coda.

Guest principal flutist Érik Gratton (of the Nashville Symphony) was nearly as impressive as Wang. He did an admirable job following the soloist in his musing with flute playing that was just as searching and poetic. Rarely has this music sounded more like a double concerto (in a good way).

Szeps-Znaider and the CSO were congenial and sympathetic partners for Wang. The conductor launched the performance with a richly dramatic introduction, drew incisive and evocative playing from the orchestra as needed—with majestic trumpets and trombones—and skillfully balanced the ensemble with his soloist.

Wang offered Bach as an encore with an inward rendering of the Sarabande from the First Cello Suite, suffused with a dignified eloquence.

Give credit to Szeps-Znaider for originality in Tchaikovsky programming this week by eschewing one of the Russian composer’s oft-heard symphonies for a generous selection of excerpts from his ballet, The Sleeping Beauty.

One of The Nutcracker’s two acts often get performed complete at symphony concerts during the Christmas season, so why not the same for Tchaikovsky’s other two ballets, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty? 

Worthy though the inspiration was, both the presentation and execution proved somewhat mixed.

Szeps-Znaider presented his own suite from Sleeping Beauty, which jumps around the fairy tale narrative in dizzyingly nonlinear fashion. Still, it provided a contrasted and effective enough selection of excerpts for a 40-minute, symphony-sized suite.

Unfortunately, the CSO’s program page and note gave zero indication to the audience of what excerpts were culled from the four-act ballet. Yes, CSO programs have been greatly slenderized this season but this is the first time the downsizing has had a negative impact on the editorial side. Even if the program was changing and became an issue for print deadlines, program inserts could have been been easily (and inexpensively) provided to clue audience members in on what the heck they were actually hearing.

Szeps-Znaider’s boldly projected approach was best suited to the ballet’s dramatic moments—the slashing, cataclysmic thunder that opened the Introduction Thursday night—-depicting Carabosse, the evil fairy—suggested Fafner emerging from his lair. Similarly, the famous waltz went with more aggressive swagger than airy grace.

While balletic delicacy was in limited supply, the conductor’s suite at least brought some less familiar Tchaikovsky to the audience, and how often can one say that? With all the wind principals off—a particular shame in this repertoire—guest flute Gratton helped bring some much-needed charm to the proceedings as did clarinetist John Bruce Yeh.

The orchestra as a unit delivered the excerpts with typical polish and vitality. There was a yielding touch in the Panorama, lithe grace to the Pas de Quatre and roiling drama to the coda of the Pas d’action, which concluded the suite.

The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday at Wheaton College, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Symphony Center. chicagosymphony.org

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