February 14–21, 2002

music

New Pit Boss

by Peter Burwasser

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Feb. 6, Verizon Hall.

Any notions that Philadelphia Orchestra music director-designate Christoph Eschenbach is just another tradition-bound German conductor were blown away last Wednesday in his first appearance at the helm of the orchestra since the position was announced. Everything about the concert — from the program contrasting new and old music to the lively, freshly imagined sound, and even the mod, tailcoat-less look of our dashing new conductor — signaled a promising new era.

Part of the excitement of the evening derived from the evolving level of comfort that the musicians are acquiring within their new acoustic world. What a thrill it was, for example, to clearly hear the precise pitch of low notes in the string basses and timpani. New hall, new music, new music director, new fashions on the podium: Is this really sleepy old Philadelphia?

The program opened with the local premiere of the Symphony No. 2 of Christopher Rouse, a work from 1994. Eschenbach brought the composer to the stage to discuss the piece, but the anger, sorrow and power of the three-movement work needed no introduction. The middle movement, like other recent music of Rouse, displays a gift for lyrical, long-lined expressiveness, in the manner of Shostakovich, but it is his signature explosiveness that gives this symphony its main character.

Five percussionists were deployed across the back of the orchestra, and they were all in fairly regular use, especially in the blistering conclusion. There were some balance problems in the complex work, with some string lines inevitably buried by the furious whacking, but in general, Eschenbach found clarity and momentum in this sharply written music.

A sense of clarity was achieved as well in a favorite old chestnut, the Dvorak Symphony No. 9, "From the New World." Brisk tempos did not deter the orchestra soloists from rendering the bouquet of great melodies with wonderful grace and color. And Eschenbach took nothing for granted in a symphony that orchestra and audience alike know in their sleep. It is a mark of a superior conductor that the interpretation could be appreciated on two levels. It was possible to marvel at the precise instrumental balances, the small but significant tempo manipulations, or the rhythmic buoyancy that Eschenbach achieved with the orchestra. But it was also quite easy to simply sit back and be bathed in a flood of beautiful music.