Gutiérrez Blows Us Away!
by
Lyn Bronson
Horacio Gutiérrez & Max Bragado-Darman
Great balls of fire! Last
night at Sunset Center, we heard a blazing performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano
Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor with pianist Horacio Gutiérrez playing up a
storm, and also making a lot of music along the way. Gutiérrez, appearing for
the third time with the Monterey Symphony, is one of the great pianists of our
time and an unabashed romantic not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. The
big romantic themes came gushing forth, larger than life with consummate
authority and conviction. In the middle of the Concerto’s first movement, there
is a famous passage where the pianist rips off ascending diminished seventh
arpeggios in double octaves at heart-stopping speeds against punctuating chords
from the orchestra — in Gutiérrez’s hands, it was even better than the great
Horowitz performance with Toscanini.
Also impressive was the lovely
understated way Gutiérrez shaped the beautiful principal theme of the slow
movement at its beginning and close. These quiet moments were elegant and
heartfelt. However, virtuosity was never far from the surface, and it was in the
final movement, Allegro con fuoco, that Gutiérrez whipped up a frenzy of
excitement that brought the audience to its feet in a rousing standing ovation.
Gutiérrez was recalled three times to center stage for a bow.
The Monterey Symphony, under
the direction of conductor Max Bragado-Darman, is presenting this concert as one
of the three-part series called “Summer Classics Series.” After being saturated
with Baroque music from the Carmel Bach Festival for three weeks, it is a
welcome contrast to get away from gut strings, Baroque bows, lutes, etc, and to
see a Steinway concert grand on stage (unfortunately the piano has been banished
by Weil and Wallfisch from the Carmel Bach Festival) and to hear some 19th
century music for a change. There once was a time when conductors (Toscanini,
Reiner, Szell, etc.) were ruthless dictators under whose direction the orchestra
members quivered in fear. Thankfully, there are few of these dinosaurs still
among us, and certainly "Maestro Max" has put a friendly face on
conductor-orchestra relations. Well, whatever he is doing, he is doing it
well, for in addition to having a happy orchestra, we also have a fine
sounding one. Additionally, they make a very nice appearance on stage for this
mini-series of summer concerts, with men in summer white dinner jackets and the
women in white blouses.
The evening’s program opened
with Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture, and it was a powerful and dramatic
performance that we heard on this occasion. More dazzling, however, was the
orchestra’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.” In the Overture, we heard lovely hushed pianissimo playing in
the strings that created moments of magic. The Scherzo was appropriately light
and feathery, the brilliantly scored Intermezzo made a fine impression, the horn
playing in the Nocturne was very fine indeed (actually, there were also some
lovely flute, oboe and bassoon solos), and the great Wedding March was
boisterous and satisfying.
After this concert was over, a
good number of people seemed to be supercharged and inclined to linger in the
aisles and in the lobby discussing with enthusiasm the evening’s performance. It
is always gratifying to observe the powerful effect a great concert can have on
our audiences who have been attending concerts for many years, yet their senses
have not become numbed by overexposure to the classics.
The Summer Classics Series
continues on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM with a solo piano recital by Gutiérrez,
and then on Monday evening at 7:00 PM an interesting program devoted to music
involving the dance, featuring works by Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Kodály, Smetana,
Borodin and Ginastera.
In this shoulder period between
summer and winter seasons, this mini-series is just what the doctor ordered to
chase away the end-of-summer doldrums.
