The CSO concludes its three-night Carnegie Hall stand.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
Last night was the final concert for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's at Carnegie Hall this season. It offered New Yorkers a chance to hear a program that was successful in Chicago: an unconventional triptych of works by Dvorak, Respighi and the lesser-known pianist-composer Giuseppe Martucci.
The concert opened with Dvořák's Fifth Symphony, the work that marks the start of the composer's mature period. (Prior to the publication of a new edition of the Czech composer's symphonies in the 1950s, this piece was widely known as Symphony No. 1.) It remains a marvelous, if under-performed example of the composer's style.
Mr. Muti led a bold, robust account of the score, with the rich cellos and potent horns of the CSO to the fore. The conductor leapt (literally) into the rollocking main theme, drawing precise, almost Bach-like harmonies underneath the swaggering main subject. The bold, brassy performance drew unexpected early applause from a few concert-goers, who were either overcome by the piece or simply didn't know better.
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| Conductor Riccardo Muti. Photo © Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
Last night was the final concert for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's at Carnegie Hall this season. It offered New Yorkers a chance to hear a program that was successful in Chicago: an unconventional triptych of works by Dvorak, Respighi and the lesser-known pianist-composer Giuseppe Martucci.
The concert opened with Dvořák's Fifth Symphony, the work that marks the start of the composer's mature period. (Prior to the publication of a new edition of the Czech composer's symphonies in the 1950s, this piece was widely known as Symphony No. 1.) It remains a marvelous, if under-performed example of the composer's style.
Mr. Muti led a bold, robust account of the score, with the rich cellos and potent horns of the CSO to the fore. The conductor leapt (literally) into the rollocking main theme, drawing precise, almost Bach-like harmonies underneath the swaggering main subject. The bold, brassy performance drew unexpected early applause from a few concert-goers, who were either overcome by the piece or simply didn't know better.
