The Orchestra Is Striking

by Peter Burwasser

The Philadelphia Orchestra's opening night took place on the last official day of summer, as a musician's strike was temporarily averted and cooler heads seemed to prevail. The evening thus seemed freighted with special significance. This high-society, glitzy, non-subscription event did not have the usual audience either, with clapping in between movements (who cares?) and quite a bit of talking during the music (these people should be forcibly removed from the hall and summarily executed at dawn). It also featured the participation of one of classical music's biggest names, soprano Renée Fleming, whose glittering presence radiated superstardom.

Fleming's busy publicists can make a plausible case that she possesses "the beautiful voice," but on the basis of her performance of Strauss' Four Last Songs, it is certainly not "the big voice." This magnificently lush music absolutely requires the tonal beauty that Fleming can deliver, but with a huge orchestra as a backdrop in the cavernous acoustics of Verizon Hall, power is also a must, and Fleming too often sounded smothered by sensuous sludge. Connoisseurs of the score dwell on the smallest turns of phrase in these grandly lyrical songs, but under these circumstances, only a general outline of the music was discernible. All the more the pity, because the orchestral part, as interpreted by music director Christoph Eschenbach, sounded luxuriously sumptuous.

Dvorak's Eighth Symphony is a brilliantly buoyant and colorful work, especially as compared to the darker, stormier symphonies that sandwich it in the composer's canon. Eschenbach might therefore be allowed some leeway in matters of tempo elasticity and dynamics, but this is a classically conceived symphony and not a tone poem. In the Strauss songs, Eschenbach's indulgences followed the flow of the music comfortably, conveying the sense that the work was breathing in a natural way. In the Dvorak, instead, the structural strength of the music was impeded by hiccups in rhythm and unusual and distracting voicing. None of this prevented the musicians from producing plush and expressive playing at every turn.

The stars were better aligned in the program opener, a brisk and propulsive rendition of Wagner's prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin. Eschenbach may have tilted the balance a bit too much towards the brass, but the effect was undeniably thrilling. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of the quality of more Wagner to come from this music director, in a city that too infrequently gets to hear this important music.

PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA Christoph Eschenbach, conductor, Sept. 21, Kimmel Center