Five years after their last New York appearance, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall for their 50th visit since they first performed here in 1954 under Eduard van Beinum. In this, the first of two back-to-concerts at the hall, Chief Conductor Designate Klaus Mäkelä led the ensemble in a generous program pairing a US premiere with two 20th-century Russian masterpieces.
Ellen Reid’s Body Cosmic is, in the composer’s words, “a meditation of the human body as it creates life and gives birth”. Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall to mark the composer’s 2023-24 residency with the RCO, the work unfolds in two movements. In the first, Awe / she forms herself, string and woodwind harmonics in the opening unwind a mysterious otherworldly melody punctuated by a light ostinato plucked on the harp, suggesting the creation of new life. In Dissonance / her light and its shadow, clamorous percussion and rapid, accelerating blasts of brass alternate with moments of warmth and radiance from the strings. With his dynamic and athletic conducting style – constantly bobbing up and down, leaning back, and wielding his baton with force – Mäkelä led an impressive account of this innovative score, releasing all the colors in its eerily distinct soundscape.
Lisa Batiashvili was the eloquent soloist in the highlight of the evening: a ravishingly beautiful account of Prokofiev’s melodiously eclectic Second Violin Concerto. Composed in 1935, the opus was the composer’s last Western commission, from French violinist Robert Soëtens, before his final return to Moscow the following year. Displaying uncommonly pure tone, Batiashvili’s playing was glorious. Her flawless intonation of the poignant Russian-folk flavored opening of the Allegro moderato first movement was tinged with melancholy, and in the unmistakably lyrical Andante assai, her playing of the luminous, long-breathed melody accompanied by pizzicato strings was ravishing. In the spiky Rondo finale she displayed superb vigor and bite. This was an altogether captivating account, brimming with life and spontaneous feeling, expertly supported throughout by Mäkelä and the RCO. In response to the audience’s vigorous applause, violinist and orchestra obliged with an encore: a sublime rendering of Bach’s chorale prelude Ich ruf zu dir, BWV639, arranged for violin solo and strings by Anders Hillborg.
The critical failure of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony sent him into depression, which was somewhat relieved by the popularity of his Second Piano Concerto, but completely erased by the immediate success of his 1908 Second Symphony. A staple of the late Romantic Russian repertoire and one of the composer’s most popular works, the lush hour-long epic is often described as long-winded and schmaltzy. In Mäkelä’s capable hands there was much to admire and enjoy in his richly detailed account of the overwhelmingly lush and passionate work – the sumptuous strings in the enigmatic opening of the energetic first movement; their blossoming in the other big string melodies; the clarity and precision of the woodwinds, especially in the third movement with principal Calogero Palmero’s mesmerizing rendition of the extended clarinet solo; the vigorous sounds of the brass; and the feeling of apotheosis in the ebullient and hymn-like finale. Mäkelä and the RCO musicians deserved the vociferous ovation they received and offered a brief encore, the Gopak from Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Sorochyntsi Fair, orchestrated by Anatoli Lyadov.
