Hrůša helms a remarkable performance with the New York Philharmonic

When Jakub Hrůša last conducted a subscription series with the New York Philharmonic, he was still regarded by many as a worthy candidate for the Music Director position that Jaap van Zweden will release at the end of the current season. In the interim, the role was offered to Gustavo Dudamel and Hrůša was named the next Music Director of The Royal Opera. Any pressure he might have faced a year ago has since subsided, granting him the freedom to express his talent in all its dimensions.

He helmed an overall remarkable performance, culminating in a rendition of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra that was full of panache. In a veritable concerto grosso manner, he encouraged a multitude of instrumentalists and entire orchestral sections to express their individuality, ensuring faultless timbral coordination. Simultaneously, the conductor maintained a keen awareness that Bartók's composition is, in fact, a five-movement symphony with a special palindromic structure – the slow central part is surrounded by two scherzos, which are, in turn, framed by two larger movements. It was mostly in the central Elegia – a typical example of Bartók’s so-called “night music” – where Hrůša showcased his deep appreciation for Eastern European folk music and the distinctive idiom of the Hungarian composer. A classicist at heart, he appeared more engaged in extracting the essence of the lyrical segments; some of the dissonant orchestral attacks could have been brusquer, and some of the rhythmic patterns, especially in the first movement, more abrasive. Multiple outstanding moments included reminiscences of Bluebeard’s Castle in the third movement, and the pregnant trombone slides interrupting the quasi-innocent chirpings of the clarinet and woodwinds in the Intermezzo interrotto.

The evening’s highly compelling curtain-raiser was an energetic rendition of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade, a meritorious, brief work with a convoluted history. It met with great success following its 1898 premiere, only to slip into oblivion in the subsequent decades, before being revived more recently as part of a renewed wave of interest in the British composer’s output. Hrůša brought forward the work’s rhythmic verve and masterful orchestration, making sure that the dialogue between fiercely muscular (occasionally too loud) and lyrical segments never lacked tension. The lush, penetrating theme intoned by the strings, evocative of Dvořák’s heartfelt melodies that the conductor knows so well, was especially memorable.

Hilary Hahn, the Philharmonic’s artist-in-residence, was the soloist in one of her signature works, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no. 1 in D major, a composition marked by a successful combination of youthful élan, lyricism and mischievousness that had its own complicated gestation process and posterity. With its uncommon slow-fast-slow structure, it imposes significant demands on the soloist, not only technically, but also in terms of psychological malleability and the adeptness in manipulating musical colours. Hahn dispatched all those challenging acrobatic passages as if they were child’s play. At the same time, she effortlessly shifted from ethereal serenity to sarcasm, and from assertive vividness to delicate lyricism. Her partnership with Hrůša and the ensemble was impeccable, spanning the entire arch, from the opening bars, where the violin gracefully hovers above a nearly imperceptible orchestral backdrop, to the final moments, the music gradually fading away.

Before the interval, Deborah Borda the former President and CEO of the Philharmonic and the current Chair of the Avery Fisher Artist Program, announced from the podium that Hilary Hahn had been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize – the very prestigious award honouring American instrumentalists. The violinist’s brilliant performance on Thursday night unquestionably justified the jury’s choice.