Had you closed your eyes at Thursday night’s Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert, you might have imagined snapshots of an Italian countryside, seashore or Neapolitan festivities.
This musical journey — a welcome change for many of us who’ve avoided overseas travel during the pandemic — was thanks to a vivid account of Richard Strauss’ rarely heard Aus Italien (From Italy), led by music director Fabio Luisi. Opening with Carl Maria von Weber’s Oberon Overture, the first half of the Meyerson Symphony Center concert included American composer Joan Tower’s 1989 Flute Concerto.
Luisi has revealed a penchant for Strauss’ orchestral showpieces. In his first concert as music director-designate in 2019, he led the DSO in An Alpine Symphony, which colleague Scott Cantrell called “a sonic extravaganza” in this newspaper. Luisi will conduct the orchestra in Strauss’ Don Juan at Saturday’s gala concert, and in Metamorphosen in November.
Aus Italien conjures up places Strauss visited during a trip to Italy. Completed when Strauss was only 22, the 47-minute work presents a suite of tone poems structured like a four-movement symphony, evincing influences from Liszt and Wagner. Yet it also suggests Strauss’ developing voice in succulent harmonies, coloristic wind details and sections seesawing between mountaintop vistas and sweeping lyricism.
Promising signs were apparent right from the start of the performance, when Luisi built hushed and glowing sonorities from the bottom to the top of the orchestra. Soon after, Luisi and the musicians luxuriated in romantic effusions, while keeping the textures moving.
Lively passages blazed in the second movement, which also featured songful melodies in the violins. Bringing out dramatic impulses from the score, Luisi skillfully scaled dynamics and made daring tempo changes, hesitating slightly before pivotal downbeats. In the finale, the musicians whipped up plenty of excitement, but also exuded comic cheer in the tarantella, a folksy dance from southern Italy.
Balances were judiciously considered throughout, with Luisi reserving the brass’ power for resplendent climaxes. First violins sometimes suffered from intonation and coordination problems, though, and winds occasionally had difficulty sounding chords together in the third movement. After a year and a half of not performing with full forces, it may take a while to get the orchestra back in top form.
Luisi and the DSO took a similarly lithe and energetic approach to Weber’s overture. Yet here, too, there were ensemble issues. Perhaps the Sunday performance will be tighter.
Horn player Alexander Kienle demonstrated a round tone and attractive legato in his solos, and principal clarinetist Gregory Raden turned in a tenderly lyrical solo.
DSO principal flutist David Buck was the soloist in the Tower concerto. In one 15-minute movement, with reduced winds and brass complement, the work alternates between the soloist playing alone and in dialogue with the orchestra, by turns cooperative and competitive. The first half or so of the piece is engaging, mixing reflective moods, animated rhythms and low brassy snarls. But Tower subsequently repeats swirling motifs that grow dull over time.
Buck effortlessly drew out the score’s appeals. In the dark and haunting opening, mainly in the flute’s low register, he displayed a rich, focused sound and fluid sense of line. He later executed brash attacks when called for, and dashed off virtuosic demands. The orchestra sounded tauter and more precise than in the other readings.
Details
Repeats at 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $34 to $174. Video stream will be available Oct. 12. Single concert $10; season pass $125. 214-849-4376, dallassymphony.org.
