Two Camille’s anchored the first half of Sunday afternoon’s Tanglewood program: Saint-Saëns and Pépin. Aside from being French, both are so succinct, with Pépin’s Un Monde nouveau (receiving its American premiere ) taking all of five minutes and Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto clocking in at 20. Each orchestrates brilliantly, creating a palette of colors and a sparkling, luminescent sheen and employs a cyclic technique to knit their compositions together.
In Camille Pépin’s Un Monde nouveau, motifs melt into each other or overlap as they flow from section to section. Some resurface intact; most are transformed in the process. Pepin derives much of her musical inspiration from the second movement of Dvořák’s From the New World, the C sharp minor passage from the middle section in particular. Pépin opens with hints of this passage in rippling winds. They stream to a solo cello which elaborates them until they begin to coalesce into a melody with distinct echoes of Dvořák’s. As new life awakens and regenerates from the old so does new music from “old” Dvořák. That awakening energy of the new sparks a persistent pulse which grows to transform the fluid flow of what has gone before into something more rapid, rhythmic, and propulsive. The sense of onward motion intensifies building to an affirmative climax.
Samy Rachid, the BSO’s Assistant Conductor, accentuated the bright, luminous color but didn’t stint the darker tones from the lower strings. The textures created by Pépin’s layering and intertwining of motifs remained transparent and the rhythmic pulse which drives the latter part surged like a locomotive gently building up a head of steam. When Serge Koussevitzky conducted the US premiere of Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra with the BSO, he famously encored them. Since Un Monde nouveau lasts about as long and is as densely inventive, it could have enjoyed the same treatment.
Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto is a tour de force for the soloist. Over 40 years ago, Yo-Yo Ma made a landmark recording. His mastery of triple stops and rapid passages demonstrated his technical skills remain solid. Interpretatively, he luxuriated more in the warmth of the lyrical passages and drew a deeper, richer tone from the lower range of his instrument. Though the soloist dominates and faces many challenges, Ma, as always, remained a self-effacing virtuoso, calling no attention to himself and only to the music he was playing. Seconded by Rachid and the orchestra the concerto’s single movement sparkled with good humor and high spirits. As he exited, Ma high-fived the cello section then returned to introduce his encore by noting that this program was dedicated to all the teachers in Berkshire County. After extolling the role teachers play in our lives and referencing Fred Rogers, he asked anyone who was or had been a teacher to raise their hand. A surprising number in the Shed did so. Ma then sat amongst the first three cellos to play the theme song to Mister Rogers’s Neighborhood, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Rachid closed the program with an atmospheric performance of Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony. Conducting with broad gestures and body English for emphasis, he sculpted a performance which honored the composer’s request that there be no break between movements, but took the time to let a tumultuous first movement and a brooding third breathe and make their points. A quicksilver second movement passed so fleetly, it seemed a mirage. Rachid created an appropriate muscular, robust sound for the Allegro guerriero segment of the finale, recalibrating it for the solemn, but joyous hymn which brings the symphony to a close. Though the performance took 40 minutes, there was no sense that that amount of time had passed.
