Ludovic Morlot made his official, subscription series debut with the Chicago Symphony last night, having filled in at the last minute for Riccardo Muti previously. His lack of pretension and focus on the details, along with an ability rare in a musician not yet 40 to corral the differing ideas of a large group of musicians caught my eye when I first heard him, and so it went last night. (I'm not the only one to take notice.) Strauss's over-the-top Suite from Der Rosenkavalier was appropriately over-the-top, but not ugly. And I've heard it done ugly.
The Strauss was the big main course of the program, and Morlot led a swashbuckling account of it, with big, lusty, brassy waltzes. The tender parts of the score weren't lost on him, either, and for those who don't like their Strauss all bloated and goopy and leaking all over the place, this was pretty much ideal. Others found it too bombastic; based on other accounts I've been unfortunate enough to attend (Yan Pascal Tortelier in Pittsburgh, looking in your direction), it wasn't.
Principal oboist Eugene Izotov made his solo debut in Mozart's C major Oboe Concerto, with a reduced complement of strings. His lithe and focused tone cut the work's phrases to the quick, and his ability to spin out a legato line effortlessly is rather enviable. Izotov also wrote his own cadenzas, I think, and improvised little connective passages in the finale; all nice, all welcome, all congenial.
Four of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances opened the program, and Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite came first on the second half. Instead of playing them up as mini-showpieces, Morlot and the orchestra found the music inside, and the saxophone of Burl Lane and Mathieu Dufour's flute made special contributions in the Bizet.
I could go on, but suffice to say, this was a warm and friendly way to for the orchestra to end 2007. This is also, I hope, a warm and friendly way to end the blogging of 2007, so I look forward to getting back to the swing of things in 2008. I love you all...but not like that.
