Top-notch performances of a largely second-rate repertoire characterized Thursday night’s performance by the Dallas Symphony at Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Guest conductor Claus Peter Flor opened the evening with the one really fine composition on the program, Dvorak’s tone poem The Wood Dove. Late in his career, Dvorak’s ability to draw convincing structure out of folk material inspired this masterpiece of descriptive music, rich with Bohemian melody and so durably crafted that the listener doesn’t need to know the grim, cautionary tale it tells. At the same time, Dvorak was able to voice a level of poetic irony along with beautiful orchestral effects—all beautifully communicated by the Dallas Symphony under a conductor with a unique talent for presenting dramatic music.
Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, a showpiece patched together out of typical Scottish tunes, served mainly as a virtuoso vehicle for violin soloist James Ehnes, who managed to introduce both energy and emotion into this tuneful but cliché-ridden work. If nothing else, the Fantasy proved once again that Ehnes, who at 34 has established himself in the top ranks of violinists of the day, owns a particularly beautiful tone across the range. Although dragging out the warhorses is part of a violin virtuoso’s job, I couldn’t help recalling Ehnes’ powerful performance of Bartok’s Second Violin Concerto, a genuine masterpiece, with the Fort Worth Symphony and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya a few years back—and wondering if a work on that level might have made a stronger impact overall in this concert.
After intermission, conductor Flor and the orchestra moved on to yet another late nineteenth-century blockbuster, Franck’s Symphony in D minor. As one who immensely admires and enjoys much of Franck’s music, including the wonderful Violin Sonata, the Quintet for Piano and Strings, and the striking larger works for piano solo, I’ve always been disappointed by the Symphony. The melodic material is generally weak and jagged, and modulations are predictable and stepwise; the really ear-catching orchestral effects are few and far between, with a heavy reliance on outwardly passionate, bombastic effects.
Flor gave about as strong a case for the work as could be imagined; although a concert devoted to the music of a single period can be interesting (all of the works on this program were written between 1880 an 1892), in this case, the stylistic homogeneity played against the overall effect. And the fluff-to-music ratio was far too high on the fluff side, besides. Although the audience responded with convincing, more-than-usual enthusiasm after the Bruch and the Franck, this listener longed to hear these superb musicians offer a wider range of style and a generally higher level of programming.
Photo: James Ehnes (Photo courtesy of the artist)
