An Assured performance of Stravinsky’s ballet was the highlight of a mixed bag season opener.
Symphony season is back! The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra opened their 2024/25 season with a program of big Russian warhorses with a bit of a twist. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t but the continued confidence of the VSO’s playing made it an exciting sign of things to come.
Tausk’s Firebird hasn’t really changed much since 2018. There is still a fantastic sense of pacing, a good ear for textures, and a strangely slow infernal dance. The thing that has changed since 2018 is the relationship between conductor and orchestra, which has only deepened over the last six seasons. In 2018 the ballet sounded like it was finding its footing as it was going along, taking about a half an hour or so to settle in. In 2024 Tausk and the VSO were in the zone right from the top, nailing the atmosphere right away. The orchestra plays with a warmth and clarity that has only continued to improve as the Tausk years go by.
As for the pacing, Tausk wisely keeps the ballet moving at a fluid pace. This is the key to performing the full ballet as the incidental music can really die if left to wallow. The biggest compliment I can give Maestro Tausk is that by the time the performance got to lead up to the infernal dance I was almost surprised that we were there so quickly. Tausk and the orchestra never let the music lose my interest at any point. No self indulgence to be had here.
As for the big set pieces for the most part they were very well serviced. I had forgotten until back in the moment just how slowly Tausk takes the infernal dance it’s almost jarring after the pace of everything else. For me it worked tough, the orchestra managed to convey a grounded nature to it that built to a manic accelerando at the end. The highlight of the performance overall though was the section bridging the infernal dance and the finale. Principal Bassoonist Julia Lockhart delivered a fantastic solo and the VSO strings were as gorgeous as I have ever heard them in the tremolo build up to the finale. The finale brought the piece to a beautiful close. Tausk and the VSO nailed it in 2018 and they did here as well. Maybe the brass could have let loose a little more near the end, but with playing at this level it was hard to complain.
The twist to Friday night’s performance of the Firebird was that it was accompanied by”symphonic cinema” which was a “live directed” silent film by director Lucas van Woerkum. I am not going to lie to you I was too locked into the Orchestra’s performance itself (credit to the VSO and Tausk for that) to have really paid attention to the film itself. From what I got though it very much came off as an art instillation film, nothing super spectacular, but nothing offensively bad either. The best I can say for the film is that it didn’t add or detract from the performance itself. Given what I feared this could have been, I consider that a victory.
I wish I had more positive things to write about Stewart Goodyear’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s third piano ticket that occupied the bulk of the first half of the program. Rach 3 is a tough customer, it contains gobs and gobs of notes, but really can’t sound like the soloist is just playing gobs and gobs of notes. There needs to be great clarity in the voices, and a real emotional weight to make the concerto work to its fullest potential. Goodyear seemed like he barely had the gobs and gobs of notes under his fingers, let alone getting close to achieving anything else. It just kind of felt like the concerto swallowed him whole. The thundering climactic cadenza of the first movement felt meek and unbalanced, the second movement failed any sort of lyricism, and all of the finale’s energy came from the VSO powering the movement forward. Unfortunately the less said about this one the better.
The concert opened in full with Jocelyn Morlock’s Night, Herself which is a beautiful 10 or so minute piece that is very emblematic of its composer. Rhythmically inspired and very texturally colorful, Night, Herself is one of the nicer “contemporary composers rework a familiar theme” pieces. One wishes the VSO could have done a more wide ranging tribute to Morlock throughout the season, but the bit we got here was nice.
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