A week after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra welcomed back one of its finest guest conductors, Vasily Petrenko, and did some sterling music-making together, the ensemble welcomed back another, to likewise gratifying results.
Hannu Lintu, chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, brings a distinctive dynamism to the podium that seems to grab the BSO's attention in a big way. That electricity has led to some notable performances during past collaborations, but none more effective than the account of Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 that Lintu and the orchestra delivered Friday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The Finnish conductor ensured that each shift between sun and cloud, urgency and reluctance in the score could be fully, freshly savored, all the while keeping a firm grip on the symphony's architecture. The result sounded terrifically spontaneous, as much in the deepest, darkest turns of the Adagio as in the brassy jolts that punctuate Dvorak's barnburner of a finale.
Polished articulation and dynamic nuance from the BSO impressed throughout; pianissimo passages inspired particularly sensitive results. The richly purring cellos in the outer movements; the satiny sheen from the violins in the waltz movement; the vibrancy of the horns — just some of the highlights in a performance that caught Dvorak's distinctive spirit.
Beethoven's unique personality dominated the first half of the program. All five of his piano concertos are being showcased during the BSO's season. The first installment came last weekend with a brilliant account of Concerto No. 3 in C minor featuring Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan. Concerto No. 1 in C major is the focus this weekend, with Canadian-born Angela Hewitt at the keyboard.
The C major Concerto finds Beethoven tipping his hat at Mozart, while also doing some fist-pumping to signal just how darn pleased he was at breaking new musical ground. It's a score brimming with poetry and drama, refinement and unabashed humor (the last movement contains a tune that suggests a precursor to the chase music on "The Benny Hill Show"), all tied together as only Beethoven could.
Hewitt's playing was so impeccable that it is churlish, I know, to wish she had brought just a little more fire power to the concerto's boldest moments, a little more variety of tone coloring elsewhere. Still, the pianist had a wonderful romp in the first movement's super-sized cadenza; molded the Largo's gentle themes with elegance; and breezed impressively through the finale. (She likewise offered a zippy Scarlatti sonata as an encore.)
Lintu was an expert collaborator in the concerto and drew vibrant playing from the BSO, as he did at the start of the evening in "Cantus Arcticus" by the late, eminent Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautaavara. This 1972 work is a concerto for taped birdsong and orchestra. Nobody has more respect for birds than I do — nobody, believe me — but I'm just not keen on hearing the chatter of larks, swans, etc., over loudspeakers. The gorgeous orchestral side of things, however, was very sensitively delivered.
If you go
The BSO performs at 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. Tickets are $33 to $99. Call 410-783-8000, or go to bsomusic.org.