It's striking that so many of the best Russian-trained conductors let loose in the West in the post-Glasnost era are not Russian, but come from countries once called "satellite" nations over here and Soviet "republics" over there. The Estonian Eri Klas, who conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last night in Meyerhoff Hall, is among the best of them.
Klas, in his third guest-conducting appearance with the BSO, somewhat resembles on the podium his better-known countryman, Neeme Jarvi. He is a large man with a no-nonsense manner and a vigorous approach to making music.
It was an approach that was well-suited to Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3, the so-called "Organ Symphony." This is not a particularly subtle work, and Klas and the BSO gave it an exciting ride. The opening movement galloped; the scherzo burst from the gate; and, in the thunderous final movement, the conductor kept up the intensity, squeezing every drop of drama from the coda. And while Klas did not eschew sensitivity, the slow movement's eloquent sentiments were never permitted to become sugary.
Of course, any judgment of Klas' performance must keep in mind that the "Organ Symphony" is a work that the BSO could play well in its sleep: It was one of former BSO music director Sergiu Comissiona's favorite party tricks, and he and the BSO made a splendid recording of it. But one of the attributes of a good conductor -- and Klas possesses it in good measure -- is staying out of the way of his players when they know what they are about.
I was less happy with Klas and the orchestra in his accompaniment for Elisso Virsaladze in Chopin's E Minor
Concerto. Klas and the Georgian pianist, who lives in Moscow, must have worked together in the former Soviet Union. But their performance sometimes suggested that they had never been introduced, much less that they had rehearsed together.
Klas is the kind of conductor who does not appear to be much bothered with small print. But concern for such details is, of course, exactly what counts in constructing an accompaniment for a virtuoso -- particularly one so personal as Virsaladze.
The pianist, who had arrived from Europe only a little more than a day before the concert, was not quite at the peak she should achieve at repeat concerts tonight and tomorrow afternoon. But she still played with the freedom, poetry and instinct for shading that mark her as a great Chopinist.