Rossen Milanov has been in town leading the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in this weekend’s concerts. Milanov recently finished serving as Associate Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has compiled an extensive list of guest conducting appearances. His rapport with the musicians of the FWSO during this, his debut with the ensemble, was intimate and impressive. Their program, which seemed significantly shorter than its two-plus hours, featured The Chairman Dances by John Adams, the Horn Concerto no. 1 in E flat by Richard Strauss, and Rachmaninov’s Symphony no. 2 in E minor.
The Chairman Dances set the tone for an evening of relatively easy listening. (The sheer breadth of the Rachmaninov symphony aside, it is still tuneful and emotionally generous.) The piece was commissioned in the mid-eighties while Adams was at work on his opera Nixon in China, and is similar in subject matter – he has described it as “a youthful Mao Tse Tung dancing the foxtrot with… the future Madame Mao” to the sound of a gramophone. The orchestra’s playing here gave crisp enunciation to the punchy syncopations present throughout, and Mr. Milanov (currently Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra) coaxed great warmth out of his players in more Romantic and jazzy moments. The cerebral side of Minimalist music may be written off by some, but Adams’ flavor of this style is lighthearted and invites listeners to simply enjoy it, with or without buying into an overriding philosophy.
A strong reception to the Adams only increased in response to the two other works on the program. Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra principal horn player Mark Houghton soloed in Strauss’ E flat Concerto, showcasing a clear tone and smooth technique. This piece sounds exactly as one would expect from a work of nineteen-year-old Strauss. It is melodious, concise, and largely conflict-free. Already his second virtuoso work for horn – there is also a set of variations dating from five years earlier – the young composer certainly knew how to write for the instrument. Mr. Houghton’s brilliance in the third movement eclipsed an ill-advisedly conservative approach to the first two.
For a composer whose name is to many synonymous with supercharged pianism, the E minor Symphony is one of Rachmaninov’s only works not to include the piano at all; indeed, even the popular Symphonic Dances is scored with a prominent keyboard part. Owing to its massiveness (most performances last about an hour), many conductors of the early twentieth century opted to perform the piece with cuts, a practice that irked Rachmaninov. But paradoxically, he frequently did just that in performing his own piano works – supposedly, he would decide on the spot whether to omit several of the Corelli Variations if he sensed the audience losing interest – and revised several pieces years later to trim what he (or his public) deemed excessive. In the case of the Second Piano Sonata, such revisions are quite substantial.
Mr. Milanov led a performance unbridled in its passion and arresting in its dramatic scope. After some extraneous body language and gesturing in the Adams and Strauss, his Rachmaninov was shockingly organic, fluid, and sincere. He seemed to have a unique, meaningful gesture for every phrase of this colossal piece, a borderline interpretive-dance of deep emotional power. The sound of the orchestra was lush and phrases well sculpted, while never overly fussy to the point of losing long-range musical tension. Mr. Milanov’s was a gutsy take on the work, often sacrificing a (small) degree of precision in favor of spontaneity – in numerous exciting accelerandi, for example. This musical approach was evident as well in the orchestra’s layout, if in fact this was Mr. Milanov’s directive: German-style seating (in which the violins sit opposite each other, flanking the conductor, with celli, basses and violas in between) helped project a rich tone in all registers. If this was at the expense of perfectly-coordinated passages in the Allegro molto (easier to accomplish with the first and second violins sitting closer together), it aimed toward a bigger goal, and provided a memorable evening.
