No sophomore slump with Canellakis’s successful return to CSO
The incredible shrinking programs continue apace at Orchestra Hall. Granted, duration isn’t everything and a 70-minute Mahler symphony can make for a perfectly full and satisfying evening.
But with barely one hour of music at this week’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert—events that normally run two hours including intermission—it’s hard not to notice the disturbing trend towards ever-shorter CSO programs. If the orchestra can charge “surge” rates for Klaus Mäkelä’s concerts, does that also mean they will reduce standard pricing for less-filled programs? Don’t hold your breath.
That said, Thursday night’s concert, led by Karina Canellakis, made for a rewarding program, if not a musically generous one. The American conductor made an impressive CSO bow three years ago, and her sophomore showing built on the success of that debut.
The Oceanides is among the many tone poems Jean Sibelius composed, often drawing on nature myths or tales of the Kalevala. Commissioned by a wealthy American patron for a Norfolk festival, Sibelius procrastinated on the work and then engaged in much drastic, last-minute revision, to the extent that a copyist had to move into his house to finish it in time. Despite the fraught circumstances, Oceanides is a concise gem, distilling a typically Sibelian mix of nature painting and Northern atmosphere in a concise ten minutes.
Thursday’s performance felt like a work in progress, wanting in detailing and expressive focus in some places. Still, Canellakis led an alert and atmospheric account that largely conveyed the ingenuity of the Finnish composer’s elliptical, rustling-of-nature style. She attentively charted the narrative from the hushed mystery of the impressionistic opening, to the wave-like ebb and flow, building to an imposing climax. Amazingly, this was the CSO’s first performance of The Oceanides in over a century since Frederick Stock led the last outing in 1916.
The Wild Dove is one of four tone poems Antonin Dvořák wrote, drawing on grisly Czech folk tales for inspiration. The last to be composed, The Wild Dove (aka The Wood Dove) tells the dark tale of a woman who has poisoned her husband. She soon finds a new paramour and remarries yet she is haunted by a dove who sits on the grave of her dead husband singing a sad song. Ultimately the matricidal murderess is overwhelmed by guilt-ridden grief and drowns herself in a river.
Canellakis showed herself an inspired podium storyteller in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, no less, in 2022, and Thursday night she led a gripping and dramatic account of this compelling work. The conductor effectively unfolded the downbeat narrative with fluent, incisive direction and skillful transitions that evocatively registered all of the programmatic elements—from the bleak opening funeral march and the spirited theme of the woman’s new lover to a lively wedding feast and the woman’s breakdown and suicide.
These late Dvořák tone poems are among his most forward-looking works and Canellakis and company made manifest how this music forms a bridge to Mahler (the solo trumpet leading the funeral cortege) as well as Leoš Janáček, who conducted The Wild Dove’s premiere in 1898.
Apart from rather pallid playing of the key flute parts by guest associate/assistant principals from the San Francisco Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony, the CSO’s performance was excellent across all sections, with characterful solo contributions by guest principal trumpet Micah Wilkinson (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) and associate concertmaster Stephanie Jeong.
The Symphonic Dances was played just two years ago in one of the CSO’s more mixed Rachmaninoff 150 programs, with Lahav Shani’s reading big on volume and light on insight.
Canellakis led a vastly different rendition Thursday night that was all gain over that 2023 outing.
Even though it was written in America (for Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra), the Symphonic Dances are imbued with echoes of Rachmaninoff’s native Russia and remains one of his most personal works. Canellakis led a richly textured and blazingly idiomatic performance that explored the dark, haunted lyricism of Rachmaninoff‘s final work as much as the volatile mercurial qualities.
In the first movement, the conductor finely balanced the contrasts between the emphatic opening motif and the inward secondary theme–introduced in a rather cool saxophone solo by Timothy McAllister, yet later taken up by the strings with much greater warmth. Canellakis leaned into the spectral waltz of the Andante, taken at a spacious tempo that emphasized its eerie, haunted melancholy. There was more characterful solo work from Jeong in the slow movement as well as Stephen Williamson, whose teetering-on-the-edge clarinet provided a welcome bit of personality to the wind playing.
Canellakis set a crackling pace for the finale, which was the fulcrum of this performance. The conductor allowed each contrasting section to resonate, giving room for the retrospective episodes that draw out the ruminative qualities of the piece. Yet there was no lack of intensity and the final section was driven with combustible fire and exhilaration en route to the coda. All in all, another impressive performance by Karina Canellakis, one of the best American conductors of her generation.
The program will be repeated 1:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. cso.org
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5 Responses to “No sophomore slump with Canellakis’s successful return to CSO”
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Posted Apr 04, 2025 at 2:15 pm by Stickles
One of the best, period! Agree with the review completely. She has intimate knowledge of this hall (3 years of playing experience with the CSO) and with that, she is able to balance and harness the power of the CSO, but never lose control. Her stick style is clear and fluent, one of the few who can communicate effectively pauses and breaks between connecting legato phrases, while each phrase is also shaded with micro-dynamics. This is poetry in music.
In general, I am very impressed by the orchestra playing and the conductors for last three weeks. I hope Hrusa, Szeps-Znaider and Canellakis can remain on our roster every season onwards.
Posted Apr 04, 2025 at 6:03 pm by Dave
You liked the concert much more than I did. It was quite short but felt a little long. It’s probably a combination of the orchestra not quite sounding like itself with so many substitutions in the brass and woodwinds along with a stodgy approach to tempo and dynamics by the conductor.
Canellakis is a good conductor but still has a ways to go. She still has a bit of that student vibe where the appearance of a clear and beautiful baton technique and an array of facial expressions are pronounced.
Posted Apr 05, 2025 at 8:09 am by Tim S
This review captured my experience Thursday night. But I disagree: I like the shorter performances. I wish more performances at other venues strived for 90 minutes
Posted Apr 05, 2025 at 10:50 am by George Young
Karina Canellakis would have been so much better of a choice for CSO Music Director than Klaus Mäkelä. This concert of hers that I attended yesterday firmly re-established that opinion in my mind. You can tell she has a well-established musical maturity which I haven’t yet detected in him.
I’m so very gratified that she will be returning for another CSO guest appearance in a year’s time.
Posted Apr 06, 2025 at 1:19 pm by Randy Wilson
I’ve been a fan of Ms Canellakis since she was a featured guest conductor in Dallas for many evenings of great music, including a last minute gig stepping in for Jaap van Zweden in the Shostakovich 7th Symphony, an electrifying performance. I’m glad she’s done so well since then, and seems on track to be a favored conductor here as well.
I thought the Rachmaninoff was outstanding on Friday, much in line with this reviewer’s impressions.
The CSO has made its decision so there’s little use wishing for Cannelakis or Hrusa (or Salonen!) to take the principal role, despite some absolutely smashing music making in the new year.