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Yet Christof Perick and the Charlotte Symphony -- joined by Oratorio Singers of Charlotte and others in "Carmina" -- made the combination work Friday night. They delivered each piece with a zest that went beyond the basic attractions I just listed. Instead of pulling in different directions, the two pieces complemented each other.
In Mendelssohn's concerto, soloist Calin Ovidiu Lupanu -- the orchestra's first-chair violinist -- fanned fires in the music that fiddlers who focus just on sweetness ignore.
By no means did Lupanu shortchange the lyricism. On the contrary -- he spun out Mendelssohn's tunes with a freedom, tenderness and gleam that gave each phrase its own poetry. Sometimes it was as quick and subtle as gliding up or down from one note to the next -- lending allure to what might otherwise be prosaic.
But even in the concerto's quiet first melody, Lupanu and Perick brought out a restlessness that hinted at drama to come. Sure enough, Lupanu delivered it by the way he dug into the concerto's big moments. His tone turned a little coarse in a couple of spots, but that was small price to pay for the intensity. Meanwhile, Perick and the orchestra supported him in delicacy and vigor -- and especially in the breeziness they gave the finale.
In "Carmina Burana," a cantata inspired by lusty 13th-century poems, Perick and the orchestra served notice that Orff's music isn't just a 20th-century version of a medieval blunt weapon.
Yes, the opening and closing numbers -- an outcry about the relentless wheel of fortune -- packed a wallop. But even there, the chorus and orchestra had a clarity and precision that heightened the music's automaton energy. And when the music turned to the delights of spring and romance, everyone savored it. Whether it was a gentle shimmer of strings or the come-hither silkiness of the women's voices, the music took on an intimacy that made the more histrionic spots all the more powerful.
The soloists heightened all that. Baritone Jochen Kupfer caressed his hymn to the powers of love, plunged into the song of the tormented youth -- without letting the relentless high notes sound tormented -- and gave a beery swagger to the portrait of the drunken abbot. Jeffrey Price's eerie falsetto conjured up the agonies of the swan being roasted for dinner. Soprano Heidi Meier, representing a woman's view of love, took to the vocal stratosphere with ease. And the Charlotte Children's Choir mirrored her purity. It would have served Mendelssohn just as well. -- www.charlottesymphony.org
Posted June 17th, 2008 by ruzik_tuzik
