The Orchestra of the Teatro Real, Spain’s powerhouse opera company, presented a gala concert of works with connections to folk music at David Geffen Hall, centered around Manuel de Falla’s El amor brujo. Some of these connections were more obvious than others, but the program had a pleasing unity.
The orchestra displayed both strengths and weaknesses. Most notable among the strengths was a stunningly warm and rich sound in lower registers and especially at lower volumes. Most disappointing among the weaknesses was a recurring shakiness in the sense of rhythmic ensemble.
Alberto Ginastera’s Panambi Suite opened the program. This is a work made of juxtapositions, with textures both ethereal and violent abutting folk-inspired material. Conductor Juanjo Mena brought out the contrasts effectively, emphasizing the pictorial nature of the music. The percussion and brass were allowed to punch hard, very satisfyingly when they were playing alone, less so when they were obscuring the strings.
Mena and Pablo Ferrández’ take on Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor did not begin to gel for me until the second movement. In the first, the orchestra displayed both balance and rhythmic uncertainties, while Ferrández attacked every moment – both lyrical and bravura – with the same disconcerting intensity. Everyone seemed to relax into the Adagio, however, and this was the most memorable part of the evening, with an absolutely delicious warmth and lyricism throughout from both soloist and orchestra. The release of tension continued through the Finale, with nearly as satisfying results. There is a passage toward the end of the movement when the cello soloist has a duet with the first-chair violin. Ferrández and concertmistress Malgorzata Wrobel, a commanding presence throughout the evening, made eye contact and suddenly seemed to realize they were having a good time. Fernández’ encore, the traditional Catalan Song of the Birds, was lovely.
El amor brujo used a much smaller group of players to support Esperanza Fernández, whose credit as a “flamenco singer” does not convey the content of her performance. She also narrated the piece and, as no one else was credited, presumably supplied her own semi-staged movement and choreography. Fernández has a charismatic stage presence and I was thoroughly engaged throughout, despite the absence of any translations and my not speaking a word of Spanish. (My companion for the evening, who does speak Spanish, assured me that she was able to follow the story clearly.) The orchestra’s balance and ensemble were impeccable at the smaller size, and worked well with the lightly amplified non-classical voice. As a chamber work, the soloists were prominently displayed, and all acquitted themselves admirably.
As throughout the evening, the textural, pictorial moments of the two Ravel Daphnis et Chloè suites performed here were the most successful, sometimes extraordinarily so. The Lever du jour from the Second Suite joined the Cello Concerto’s Adagio as the evening’s other most memorable sequence. I am not a visual person, but I swear I saw a sunrise in the middle of David Geffen Hall and briefly found myself soaring over clouds in the morning sunshine.
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