RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA – Saturday, December 8, 2007
Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé
Anticipation heightens for Ridgefield Symphony audiences as
the competitive quest for the RSO’s new Music Director
continues. Gerald Steichen, the second of this season’s
“Fabulous Finalists,” manned the podium last Saturday
evening for an all-Russian program that included Mikhail
Glinka’s Russlan and Ludmilla Overture, Tchaikovsky’s
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto
No 2 in C minor. 2005 Van Cliburn International Silver
Medalist Joyce Yang was the guest soloist.
Unlike competitors in most formal performing competitions,
who are usually required to demonstrate the scope of their
repertoires with selections from the several traditional
style periods (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and
contemporary), Mr. Steichen chose to focus entirely on
Romantic audience favorites, rich in lush lyricism and
passionate outpouring – a predictably audience-pleasing trio
of alternately melodically beautiful and aurally exciting
works.
Mr. Steichen’s conducting is both visually energetic and
well schooled, with the sort of consistently alert sectional
cueing and clear and precise beat that serve to make his
direction clear to his musicians, to help involve his
audience visually in the special experience of live music,
and also to underscore his detailed involvement with the
music he is interpreting.
The popular Glinka overture, with its alternating energy and
lyricism, was beautifully managed and played, and the
handling of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was fine overall
too, especially the dramatically lovely slow second
movement, with Maestro Steichen’s precisely measured beat
(ironically) only occasionally slightly blocking an
otherwise sensitive management of expressive rubato.
Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 – arguably the twentieth
century’s best-loved work of its kind – is a lyrical
treasure trove; but it is also such a powerfully virile work
that one can be at least momentarily taken aback to hear
(and see) it tackled by a performer as lovely and petite in
stature as Joyce Yang. But in addition to being a sensitive
artist with a fluent virtuoso technique, Ms. Yang is a
diminutive powerhouse; and the amalgam of those qualities
assured a stunning performance -- both strong and musically
beautiful throughout, with consistently sensitive phrasing,
free-flowing movement through shifting moods, tempos, and
levels of intensity, and all of the requisite Romantic
virtuoso display.
All in all it was a fine evening of polished music making
capped by enthusiastic comments by Mr. Steichen about his
enjoyable week’s stay in Ridgefield and a spirited encore
rendition of “Sleigh Ride,” Leroy Anderson’s sprightly
seasonal romp.
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