Karina Canellakis returned to Tanglewood to lead a program of contrasts with the German School – Beethoven and Brahms – taking up the first half before the French in the second, Chausson and Ravel with James Ehnes as violin soloist.
The Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus functioned the way it often did at Beethoven’s own concerts, as a colorful and high-spirited curtain raiser. Canellakis’ sequence of razor sharp chords at the outset set in motion a svelte, light-footed performance propelled by an ever tauter rhythmic drive. Only a few additional players were required for the segue to Brahms’ Schicksalslied, but the lack of two seats in the viola section provided a brief moment of musical chairs levity as they and then, finally, two scores were brought on. All was quickly eclipsed by the nimbus of light in sound the Tanglewood Festival Chorus emitted, wafted on the “shimmering divine breezes” Canellakis coaxed from the orchestra. If flights of angels are truly meant to sing us to our rest, then they should sound like this. A roiling, restless reeling quality drove the grievances of a suffering humanity pummeled to exhaustion. The serenity and repose with which Canellakis infused the return of the Elysian introduction provided some balm to close.
Eugène Ysaÿe, for whom Chausson composed his Poème for violin and orchestra, once wrote that mastering virtuoso techniques both for bowing and the left hand was indispensable for “the spirit to express itself without restraint”. So he did not shy away from virtuosity in his own compositions or, in the Poème’s case, from adding it in the form of formidable flurries of double-stopping. Ehnes, who has studied and mastered Ysaÿe’s sonatas which are a minefield of similar challenges, had no trouble meeting those of the Poème. His playing was technically secure and expressive, its rapt delicacy and autumnal timbre reflecting the shifting moods and spirit of melancholy and introspection which run through the work’s 15 minutes. His dynamics ranged from soft to softest, drawing the listener in. Canellakis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were alert and sensitive interlocutors, helping create this chamber-like intimacy. Ehnes closed with a poignant dissolve of dying trills.