It says something — something good — that this veteran Dallas concertgoer recognized not a soul at the Dallas Chamber Symphony concert Tuesday night. The well-filled Moody Performance Hall demonstrated yet again the DCS success in attracting people who don’t normally go to classical music concerts. And the concert offered an imaginative program and mostly fine performances.
Led by music director Richard McKay, the group appeared this time as a string orchestra of about 30 players. The young American pianist Christopher Goodpasture was soloist in the two works on the program’s first half.
The 1931 Rapsodia sinfónica of Spanish composer Joaquín Turina was a lively opener. About 10 minutes long, it gives both pianist and strings a balance of splash, sparkle and lushness. The Spanish spirit is unmistakable, but the brilliant overlay betrays influences from Turina’s studies in Paris.
Goodpasture and McKay collaborated in a performance of both pizzazz and poetry. But some inconsistently polished playing from violins was to be a repeated issue in the concert.
Franz Liszt composed his early Malédiction (Curse) as a showpiece for his virtuoso pianism. At moments, the music does seem to fling out curses, elsewhere lurking in spooky shadows. It also makes room for a happy little dance, but is it happiness recalled in sorrow?
Goodpasture stormed through thundering chords and dispatched showy runs with great flair, but he had just the right light touch when called for. McKay and the orchestra matched him for drama and expressivity — again with some fudging by at least a couple of violins in high writing.
Those violin issues were harder to overlook in Gustav Mahler’s string-orchestra arrangement of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden String Quartet. (The subtitle refers to Schubert’s art song that’s the subject of the second-movement variations.) There were just enough vaguely aimed top notes to make you wonder when the next ones would happen. I don’t remember this being such a problem in previous DCS concerts.
The rest of the strings performed admirably, although in a hall with such strong bass response as Moody I wondered if one double bass might have been enough, rather than three. Even writing for string quartet, Schubert feels his music in vocal phrases, and McKay led a spirited, shapely performance.
Especially for an audience less accustomed to classical music concerts, a bit of talk from the stage can lend a human touch. But there was talk before each of Tuesday’s three pieces, from an enthusiastic board member, from Goodpasture and finally McKay. Goodpasture came across as friendly, but he rambled on about the Liszt; about half that much, carefully edited, would have been much better.
Even with half as much talk, it would have been thoroughly natural to add, “The Schubert/Mahler is in four contrasted movements meant to be heard as a continuity. So it will have its best effect if you hold applause until all four movements have been played.”
And may we have enough light to read the program during the concert?
