Cover image: Thomas Dausgaard conducting Seattle Symphony (Photo: Brandon Patoc)
On his return to the Seattle Symphony podium for the first time since the announcement that he will take over the orchestra’s music directorship in the 2019-2020 season, Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard chose an all-Brahms program–directed with such dynamism that Benaroya Hall erupted at the end and the orchestra gave him not one but two solo bows, refusing to stand and indicating to him that he take the audience plaudits alone.
He also gave the pre-concert lecture Thursday and will Saturday also, talking apparently without notes and describing Brahms’ musical maturing through his works, with musical illustrations. For the performance he programmed the ever-popular Variations on a Theme by Haydn, and a grouping of nine Liebeslieder Waltzes interspersed with three of the Hungarian Dances, performed without interruption. Dausgaard conducted without a score including, in the program‘s second half, the Symphony No. 2.
The orchestra was considerably reduced, since many musicians are playing for Seattle Opera, but Dausgaard mentioned that this was likely a common size for many Brahms’ performances, and also that the smaller forces made it possible to hear balances differently. This was true. The winds and brass interleaving with the strings was more noticeable, the detail clearer. We are so familiar with Brahms sounding plushy, even cozy, that this leaner, cleaner sound took some of the weight off. The results were exhilarating, loaded with vitality, but never relentless. Soft moments felt airy, often lighthearted, legatos tenderly smooth, and the whole expansive when it should be.
Thomas Dausgaard conducting Seattle Symphony (Photo: Brandon Patoc)
Freed from reading a score, Dausgaard directed with such energy it seemed hard to contain him to a podium, but the results not only elicited meticulous results from the musicians (I noticed only two slightly ragged entries) but nuance and change in mood as well as the more obvious dynamic levels and tempi for the Variations, Waltzes, and Dances as well as the Symphony. Whispering pianissimos met startling blasts, legatos segued to furious activity, and all of it had an overall shape.
The musicians responded with an electric performance, with associate principal flute Jeffrey Barker outstanding throughout.
