James Conlon & Blake Pouliot
REVIEW: Conductor James Conlon inspires in Beethoven’s Second Symphony with CSO
From the Cincinnati Business Courier
By Janelle Gelfand
“We all need to hear more Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven,” conductor James Conlon told the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s audience, before leading a revelatory performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in Music Hall on March 20.
The music director laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival was back in town for an invigorating program that seemed fitting for the first weekend of spring. Conlon opened with Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, nicknamed the “Drumroll,” and concluded with Beethoven’s Second Symphony.
As for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, the French violinist Renaud Capuçon had to bow out earlier in the week due to an ear infection. Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot was crossing the Atlantic when he got the call to step in, and he made it Cincinnati in time to make his CSO debut in the same concerto.
Conlon was music director of the oldest choral festival in the United States for 37 years (1979–2016), serving one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. During his career, the New York native has led every major American and European orchestra and conducted at the world’s greatest opera houses. Presently, Conlon is celebrating his 20th and final season as music director of LA Opera.
Conlon’s history with this orchestra will mark 50 years in 2028. At the Cincinnati May Festival, his programs were anchored by towering requiems, monumental opera scenes and distinctive forays into lesser-known composers whose music was suppressed by the Nazi regime.
Even in these classical works, which Conlon conducted from memory, there was no lack of drama and there was much to rediscover in his interpretations. Throughout the evening, Conlon’s leadership was clear, meaningful and unaffected, and the orchestra’s playing was brilliant in every regard.
Conlon’s point was well-taken in Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat Major, “Drumroll,” not heard at the Cincinnati Symphony in nearly three decades. One of Haydn’s final symphonies written for London audiences puts the timpani in the spotlight. The symphony opens on a single note for the timpanist, which can be interpreted as merely a drumroll or much more.
In the case of Associate Principal Timpanist Joseph Bricker, listeners were treated to a mini-cadenza, a robust improvisation that gradually faded into the opening bars of the work’s slow introduction.
Conlon’s tempos were genial. Nothing was rushed, yet there was palpable energy and momentum. The introduction burst upon the first movement’s “Allegro con spirito” like a ray of sun. The second movement, a double set of variations, allowed orchestral soloists to shine, including a virtuosic turn by concertmaster Stefani Matsuo. The folk-like minuet was earthy and centered by a lyrical trio.
Conlon had a gift for seamlessly transitioning through Haydn’s rapid changes of character and mood. The finale was a play of lightness and intensity, and accents were boldly etched. The symphony ended on a note of pomp with a flurry of drumrolls for the timpanist.
Also in the first half, the violinist Pouliot entered with a big smile and proceeded to mesmerize in his performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, “Strasbourg.” The rising star received training at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and graduated from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles.
Pouliot turned to play along with the violin section in the orchestral introduction, before launching into his solo. His playing was full of personality, as he communicated with players in the orchestra, crouched and moved in almost a dance-like accompaniment while tackling the technical feats of this concerto by the 19-year-old Mozart.
Pouliot wrote his own cadenzas, as Mozart had left none in print. His first-movement cadenza featured double stops, left-hand pizzicatos, fiery runs and trills, as if to say, “Watch me.” He communicated with an intimate, pure tone in the slow movement, one which Alfred Einstein described as “an adagio that seems to have fallen straight from heaven.” (Pouliot performed on a 1728 “Thunis” Stradivari violin, which he recently started playing.)
Again, beaming a big grin, the violinist launched into the lively finale. He effortlessly tossed off its fireworks, for an exciting finish. Conlon was an ideal partner, and the orchestra supported the soloist flawlessly.
After rock-star-like ovations from the audience, Pouliot performed his own arrangement of the traditional Gaelic tune, “The Last Rose of Summer.” It was beautiful in its simplicity, and he played it with exquisite control.
After intermission, Conlon led an exhilarating performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Not yet the revolutionary work of the kind that Beethoven was to write in his Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” the lesser-played Symphony No. 2 nevertheless anticipates the future and is remarkable in its own right.
Every note was alive in this reading. Leading vigorously, Conlon elicited a rich, robust sound in the slow introduction, emphasizing its contrasts of light and dark, followed by a richly dramatic “Allegro con brio.”