Caution to the Wind: DSO’s Ambitious and Successful Opener

The standing ovation seemed to come with a good-natured caveat: “…but you didn’t need to show off!” This opening concert of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2011-12 season presented a program of daunting scope, challenging both to the musicians and their audience, with Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1 and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony side by side. Under the direction of Maestro Jaap van Zweden (now in his fourth year as music director), the DSO set an impressive standard for the rest of the season. Refined playing in their collaboration with pianist Emanuel Ax and a stunning display in the Prokofiev amounted to two hours’ worth of “anything we can do, we can do better.” Irving Berlin would have approved.

Less than three decades after his death, Beethoven’s influence still weighed heavily on composers, and in particular on the young Brahms’ first forays into writing for the orchestra. Brahms was reluctant to present a symphonic work that he felt was less than worthy of the Master, and the D minor concerto, as much a concerto as a “symphony with piano”, resulted from a laborious five-year stretch of revisions. His first attempts date from 1854, when at the ripe old age of 21 he began sketching out ideas for a symphony, and later a sonata for two pianos, before streamlining them into one of the most monumental piano concerti of the era.

Unlike the fits and starts in which Brahms toiled over his First Concerto, Prokofiev wrote his Fifth Symphony in one summer (1944), and with such impassioned focus that he put off other projects to keep the work in the front of his mind. He “conceived of it as a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit,” rather than pertaining to the events of World War II. In this regard it was fitting to be heard alongside a work of Brahms, that champion of so-called “absolute” (non-programmatic) music.

Maestro van Zweden directed his players with ferocity, imparting a quick tempo and threatening atmosphere to Brahms’ Maestoso first movement, and sustained the intensity throughout this marathon of a work. Emanuel Ax brought warmth, eloquence and audacity in equal measure to the solo part. His sound was full-bodied and lush, generally dark while admitting occasional rays of light to peek through and illuminate a countermelody in an inner voice. The Polish-born superstar, who performs a drastic range of repertoire including a great deal of contemporary music, made this now-standard work feel new and volatile. Mr. Ax leant his playing a freshness that verged on improvisational, a welcome change of pace in comparison with the staid interpretations of many players today. The DSO were no slouches either, showcasing their own virtuosity in the deftly handled fugato section of the Rondo.

But with all apologies to Manny, it was in the second half that Maestro van Zweden and the DSO stole the show. With the Prokofiev symphony they delivered a 45-minute thrill ride, and in all the clarity of a studio recording. The work’s opening was played with a tenderness that never veered into sentimentality, and the second and fourth movements, the fast sections of which range from playful to militaristic, were electrifying. The violins handled Prokofiev’s angular melodies and jaunty rhythms with aplomb, and were seemingly most unified in the trickiest passagework. (This weekend saw the introduction of concertmaster Alexander Kerr, who formerly held that post in the Concertgebouw Orchestra.)

Maestro van Zweden has surely breathed new life into this orchestra, both in his conducting and general administration. (With eleven members making their débuts this month alone, the ensemble has recently seen an influx of fresh talent.) A veritable lightning rod on the podium, this is a man who seems to order his coffee not “black”, but rather “high octane”. Not even in his rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner – an in-house tradition to kick off every concert season – could van Zweden’s explosive temperament be contained. (His musicians were presumably reminded of this first number before taking the stage, as surely none of them would have been blamed for mistaking the initial snare drum cue for the dramatic opening of the Brahms concerto!) Despite some small coordination issues early in the Brahms owing to such a head-first approach, this was live music at its best – risks taken, rewards more often than not reaped, and the familiar made to sound novel again. The ambitious choice to program these two mammoth works surely paid off, in a major statement of a season opener.