The first half of this intriguing and memorable concert was taken up by Luca Francesconi’s Duende: The Dark Notes. Leila Josefowicz collaborated with the composer during the writing of the piece, which she premiered in 2014. As Francesconi explains, the ‘duende’ of the title is historically “the demon of flamenco”, a passionate and expressive element that the Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca perceived in the folkloric music and dance of his native Andalusia, and which he described as “an underground force of unprecedented power that escapes rational control”. Cast in five movements played without pause, the half-hour score conjures up a world of extreme emotions and dramatically contrasting colors. The violin part, dominated by sweeping scales and broken arpeggios, demands a rigorous and passionate response, as the orchestra weaves a darkly atmospheric tapestry of sounds – sometimes ethereal, sometimes turbulent – featuring bird-calls, scraped metal, chimes and a host of other percussion. Josefowicz, an intense and physical musician, delivered an astonishing performance – gripping throughout but especially in the diabolical cadenza at the center of the final movement – while Mälkki drew exceptionally energetic and focused orchestral playing.
The mood changed drastically after intermission, as Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen unfolded. Composed in 1945, when the composer was 80 and World War II was coming to its end, the piece is an elegy to the destruction of German cultural life, which the composer revered, Metamorphosen presents a dark, painfully beautiful sound-world, touching upon feelings of loss and despair, and referencing to the Eroica’s funeral march. The 23 Philharmonic soloists and Mälkki delivered an unfailingly eloquent account – unhurried, dignified and deeply felt.
In another mood-changing swing, the evening concluded with La valse, Ravel’s often-heard homage to the Viennese waltz, composed in the wake of World War I. The Philharmonic has ties to the composer – he conducted it in 1928, and the ensemble has performed La valse 291 times before this concert. Mälkki elicited an expansive and explosive interpretation of the powerful and disturbing music. Following a refined rendering of the atmospheric introduction, the Philharmonic played with uninhibited exuberance, sounding bright, spirited and full of tension, as the dramatic performance built to a spectacular ending.
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