The state of the world this November feels especially conducive to mourning. Before presenting one of the best-loved Requiems in the canon, visiting conductor Kazuki Yamada opened his Seattle Symphony program with a much less frequently encountered work of grieving by his great compatriot Tōru Takemitsu. Requiem for string orchestra signaled the young Japanese composer's international breakthrough after Stravinsky heard it and pronounced the composition a masterpiece.
Written in 1957 for one of Takemitsu's mentors, the film composer Fumio Hoyasaka, this wordless Requiem breathes its stirringly sad beauty with an expressive, indeed expressionist concentration. Yamada sustained an intensity from the Seattle strings whose weightiness belied the brevity of the piece, with a notably eloquent solo contribution by new principal viola Sayaka Kokubo.
Of his Western influences, Debussy and Messiaen were particularly important for Takemitsu in his formative years. Yet the late-Romantic, Gallic sound world of Fauré's Requiem felt far removed from the immersive lamentation against which it was juxtaposed. Yamada led a performance of admirable textural clarity, giving profile to inner voices that often lie hidden. Still, dragging tempos and a lack of architectural profile dampened the overall effect of Fauré's consoling music.
The Seattle Symphony Chorale, prepared by director Joseph Crnko (curiously uncredited in the program, which also omitted the excellent organist, Joseph Adam), sang with grace and feeling, despite occasional lapses of coordination. The Pie Jesu was even more of a highlight than usual thanks to the warmth and directness of soprano Liv Redpath's account. Despite his omission of the “trump of doom” of the Dies irae sequence, as Beethoven once described it. Fauré's Requiem setting does include moments of foreboding in the Libera me. Bass-baritone Christian Pursell added a welcome sense of dramatic tension to his plea.
Yamada, who took over the reins of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra last year, had only led the Seattle Symphony once before (2018) but seemed very much at home on the program's triumphant second half, which comprised Elgar's Enigma Variations. In an interview earlier this year with Bachtrack, Yamada described his vision of the Variations as “a piece that captures human life”, and his full-on, all-embracing approach to its variety made for a spectacularly involving performance.
Detail after detail jumped out from the score with illuminating freshness – the pauses that shape the stately theme, the mock storm-and-fury of Troyte, the charming woodwind stutter of Dorabella (a favorite of Yamada) – and each variation emerged as a distinctive miniature that made sense on its own terms. Yamada underscored Elgar's contrasts, relishing the boisterous energy of the fast variations and leaning into the serene catharsis of Nimrod.
The virtuosity that abounded from each section of the orchestra gave the sense of an ensemble concerto, from the precision and transparency of the strings and woodwinds' characterful phrasing to the vigorous, exuberant interjections of brass and percussion. In spite of everything, a momentary flash of optimism resonated through the audience – a reminder of art's enduring potency when most needed.
Über unsere Stern-Bewertung