The Dallas Symphony Orchestra offered an imaginative mix of music Thursday night, and a guest conductor new to this listener. The Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a...
Guest conductor Andris Poga leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with pianist Behzod Abduraimov, at the Meyerson Symphony Center on May 16, 2024.offered an imaginative mix of music Thursday night, and a guest conductor new to this listener. The Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, featuring pianist Behzod Abduraimov, was nothing if not core repertory, but Lili Boulanger’s is hardly a chestnut, and the Shostakovich 15th Symphony is a rare visitor to the concert stage.
Trained in his native Latvia and Vienna, Andris Poga is now chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway. On the Meyerson Symphony Center podium he demonstrated commendable clarity and economy of motion, seeming to give the orchestra just what it needed without putting on a show for the audience.The Shostakovich, the composer’s last symphony, was completed in 1971. It’s nominally in the traditional four movements, but what quirky movements they are.
Poga evinced real understanding of a strange work, leading with authority. The orchestra duly delivered every extreme of dynamic and color, with too many notable solo contributions to list. But special praise goes to co-concertmaster Nathan Olson, principal cellist Christopher Adkins and trombonist Christopher Oliver.
One of the more prominent younger pianists on the international circuit these days, Abduraimov was most impressive in early variations of the Rachmaninoff. He could produce a big, carrying sound without forcing, but he could also round off phrases with elegant delicacies.But he increasingly pushed tempos in the faster variations at the cost of the music’s nobility. And the fortissimos got louder and louder, more noisily than needed. Rachmaninoff is best served with some aristocratic reserve.
The sadly short-lived sister of the celebrated French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, Lili Boulanger evoked her spring morning in Asian-influenced impressionism. Swirls and flashes of colors, alternately diaphanous and brilliant, were nicely served up as the concert opener.Repeats at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $41 to $189. 214-849-4376,, Special Contributor.
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