Juilliard Orchestra Present Strauss & Bartók

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 25 May 2024 11:56

Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Claudio Papapietro

At Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on the evening of Thursday, May 23rd, I had the great pleasure to attend the superb—if brief—commencement concert presented by the remarkably precocious players of the Juilliard Orchestra under the sterling direction of an eminent conductor, Marin Alsop.

The event started brilliantly with a thrilling realization—and the world premiere—of contemporary composer Hilary Purrington’s excellent, exquisitely scored Sercy—commissioned by this ensemble—which somewhat recalls the works of Aaron Copland’s middle, “American” period. In a useful note on the program by Juiiliard student Carys Sutherland, she records that “In the southern U.S., ‘sercy’ refers to a small, unexpected gift.” Purrington comments: “My time at Juilliard was an immense gift, so composing this work really does come from a place of gratitude.”

At least equally impressive was a marvelous version of Richard Strauss’s extraordinary, imaginative tone-poem from 1889, Don Juan, Op. 20. A brash opening rapidly leads to a sumptuous, neo-Wagnerian, Romantic theme; a lyrical ethos returns after an interval, interrupted by a passage in the more dramatic and playful style of the piece’s beginning which comes to dominate as the music builds in intensity until its unexpectedly quiet conclusion. Experiencing Don Juan again prompted a question: what explains the composer’s seemingly strong attraction to the picaresque—as seen also in his Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks and Don Quixote—in this relatively early phase of his career?

The performance concluded magnificently with an outstanding rendition of Béla Bartók’s astonishing Concerto for Orchestra, which after innumerable encounters remains consistently surprising. The Introduzione has a somewhat hushed and uncanny—even sinister—beginning; the music becomes more forceful and agonized, while a more gentle interlude—featuring the oboe—that is partly recapitulated later in this movement—which closes powerfully—suggests a more affirmative outlook. The ensuing Giuocco delle coppie—marked Allegretto scherzando—unsurprisingly projects a more comic sensibility, gaining in momentum but ending softly. The Elegia that follows—with an Andante non troppo tempo—at its outset is solemn, mysterious, evocative, and Impressionistic but quickly becomes highly charged. The succeeding Intermezzo interrotto—an Allegretto—is ludic, enchanting and hauntingly beautiful, before becoming overtly satirical, and the Finale is propulsive, dynamic and joyful, with some eccentricities and folk-like interludes—it is completed in an exuberant manner.

The artists deservedly received an enthusiastic ovation.

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