{"id":16029,"date":"2024-10-25T15:48:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T19:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=16029"},"modified":"2025-04-14T15:50:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T19:50:57","slug":"review-runnicles-returns-and-scores-again-with-strauss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-runnicles-returns-and-scores-again-with-strauss\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Runnicles returns and scores (again) with Strauss"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Chicago Classical Review<\/a><\/p>\n

By Lawrence A. Johnson<\/p>\n

It was five years ago that Donald Runnicles made his belated Lyric Opera debut, conducting a riveting performance of Richard Strauss\u2019s Elektra in which the unearthly sounds coming out of the orchestra pit proved even scarier and more mesmerizing than what was taking place on stage. (Of course, finger ever on the pulse, Lyric\u2019s former management never invited him back.)<\/p>\n

Happily, Runnicles returned to town Thursday night to lead more Strauss\u2014this time at the other end of the Loop with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, his first downtown podium stand since 2016. The evening\u2019s program may have looked pedestrian on paper, yet the outstanding performances provided an example of a first-class conductor inspiring the orchestra to their very best.<\/p>\n

There was a fantastical thematic thread running through the selections, which led off with Beethoven\u2019s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus.<\/p>\n

Beethoven\u2019s curtain-raiser to his eponymous ballet score is among his most concise overtures but also one of his finest. From the taut dramatic punch of the opening chords, this was an exhilarating and ideally realized performance, with warmly blended tuttis, rollicking woodwinds and dazzlingly virtuosic strings in the main Allegro.<\/p>\n

A versatile veteran of both the opera house and concert hall, Runnicles was music director and principal conductor of San Francisco Opera from 1992-2009 where he led a magnificent Ring cycle (at least musically) in 2011.<\/p>\n

Devoting nearly half the evening to a 32-minute suite from Engelbert Humperdinck\u2019s Hansel und Gretel may seem like a profligate waste of resources. But Runnicles\u2019 affection for this score\u2014one he has likely led countless times in the opera house\u2014 was manifest in Thursday night\u2019s performance. Omar Abad\u2019s suite doesn\u2019t attempt a unified synthesis, instead rather clunkily compiling seven non-sequential excerpts from the opera.<\/p>\n

Runnicles\u2014a rare left-handed gun on the podium\u2014 underlined the Weber influences in Humperdinck\u2019s opera, as with the Prelude in which the four horns floated a magical rendering of the \u201cEvening Prayer.\u201d Runnicles and the players served up a characterful account of this score bringing out its inherent gracious charm. There was a rambunctious account of the children\u2019s playful dance (\u201cRallalala\u201d), spooky evocation of the forest with delicate pizzicatos, and galumphing humor in the \u201cWitch\u2019s Waltz,\u201d closing with a shimmering and majestic reprise of the prayer. The musicians delivered playing that was refined, lively and sumptuous under Runnicles\u2019 direction with even the grandest climaxes never turning strident.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Chicago Classical Review By Lawrence A. Johnson It was five years ago that Donald Runnicles made his belated Lyric Opera debut, conducting a riveting performance of Richard Strauss\u2019s Elektra in which the unearthly sounds coming out of the orchestra pit proved even scarier and more mesmerizing than what was taking place on stage. (Of … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3613,3612,6668],"class_list":["post-16029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conductor","tag-review","tag-sir-donald-runnicles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16030,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions\/16030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}