Shortly after Harmonia Mundi released its first recording project with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie (conducted by Gustavo Gimeno), they embarked on the recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. Based on last Saturday’s concert in Roy Thomson Hall, this next live concert recording promises to be a winner.
Gustavo Gimeno has previously recorded a great deal of Stravinsky with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the results are good enough to qualify the Spanish conductor as a specialist. This is no small feat, considering Stravinsky’s wide variety of compositional styles and techniques. He first made his reputation composing ballet scores for Diaghilev in Paris, during his so-called Russian period. In the 1920s, Stravinsky re-invented himself as a neo-classical composer. Still later, he experimented with contemporary techniques, and produced works that were complex and austere, such as Agon.
For their latest recording Gimeno and the TSO have chosen two ballet scores from Stravinsky’s neo-classical period. The Fairy’s Kiss (1928) is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, The Ice Maiden. The one-act ballet score was adapted into a shorter version, under the name ‘Divertimento.’ The TSO and Gimeno gave the Divertimento a beautifully shaped performance — the final Pas de deux was particularly charming.
Stravinsky – Pulcinella at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Feb. 23 (Photo by Jae Yang)
After intermission came Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (1919). Although the suite from Pulcinella is often heard in concert, a performance of the entire ballet score is a rarity. While the vocal movements are not especially interesting, the three singers taking part were first rate. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard is a regular at the Met, and both tenor Paul Appleby and bass-baritone Derek Welton have impressive credentials too.
The instrumental movements put Stravinsky’s genius at the fore. Based on short pieces, mostly by Pergolesi, Stravinsky’s orchestration is full of originality and rhythmical zest. The resulting material is far more interesting than the original versions. The music makes great demands on almost all the principal players, including the double bass. The TSO played this wonderful music with virtuosity, and Gimeno led them with both energy and finesse. Among the notable soloists was principal trumpet Andrew McCandless. McCandless is officially on leave this season (to accommodate his teaching position at the Eastman School of Music), but he interrupted his leave to take part in the Pulcinella recording. As always, his technique and beauty of tone were almost beyond praise.
While this concert was designed to allow for the Stravinsky recording, there was also a short curtain-raiser: a 2017 TSO commission, Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Curiosity, Genius and the Search for Petula Clark. The composer tells us that the piece was written to celebrate Glenn Gould’s 85th birthday.
It is hard to discern whether the work makes any musical reference to Gould. Murphy says that the reference is more general than that, however. She writes that she tried to “weave […] energy, curiosity, reflection, and satisfaction” throughout the piece – facets of Gould’s personality. One wishes for more information as to how these were Gouldian qualities, and wonders whether they could more literally be translated into music?
Stravinsky – Pulcinella at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Feb. 23 (Photo by Jae Yang)
Murphy explains the Petula Clark connection by detailing a CBC radio documentary produced by Gould, called The Search for Petula Clark. That being said, this connection doesn’t seem to provide any musical content for Murphy’s piece. Beyond the title, the work evokes ‘run of the mill’ contemporary music, and not much more.
Gimeno is a gifted conductor, who wields a mean microphone, as well as a baton. Such was clear following the concert, when Gimeno paid tribute to violinist Semyon Pertsofsky, who is retiring after 45 years in the orchestra. With this news, and another successful recording in the books, there was no shortage of things to celebrate for audiences at Roy Thomson Hall.
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