Cover image: Karina Canellakis, conductor (Photo © Mathias Bothor)
A large audience were treated to a lively and engaging Seattle Symphony concert last Thursday night at Benaroya Hall. Maybe they came for Prokofiev’s popular “Romeo and Juliet” Suite No. 2, or to hear principal cellist Efe Baltacigil take on the also familiar Haydn Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major, or perhaps to experience what is still too much of a rarity: a young woman on the podium, Karina Canellakis.
Both works and the infrequently performed Holoubek (“The Wild Dove”) tone poem by Dvořák were directed in masterly fashion by 36-year-old Canellakis, who has soared onto the conducting podium internationally in the past few years from being a section violinist in both the Chicago Symphony and in the Orchester-Akademie of the Berlin Philharmonic.
The dramatic Dvořák work is the musical depiction of a Czech folk tale, with a poisoner falsely grieving at a funeral, her subsequent wedding and dance, and increasing guilt prompted by the singing of a dove. Canellakis is a conductor who is clear, precise and decisive in what she wants overall, but at the same time she gives space to the musicians to phrase themselves within her guidelines, using large arm sweeps. She made Holoubek highly atmospheric, from funereal to rambunctious to ominous — to looking positively demonic at one point — as she indicated the mood she wanted.
She and Baltacigil were at Curtis Institute of Music together when she was studying violin and he cello, and the two were in complete synchrony as they and the much-reduced orchestra performed the Haydn together. Although it isn’t exactly known who Haydn composed this for, it must have been a player with superb technique. The cello part is exposed and requires considerable virtuosity along with musicianship.
Efe Baltacigil, cello (Photo: Seattle Symphony)
Baltacigil who, when not playing the solo chose to play along with his colleagues, has a sunny, burnished tone which suited the music admirably, and in his hands his instrument sang with artistry from the bottom of its range to the highest possible notes, always impeccably in tune. The audience seemed thrilled, and with roars of pleasure brought him back for several bows and an encore from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6.
Prokofiev’s Suite No. 2 of course also depicts a story, or at least selected parts of it, in these seven sections from the ballet score. Canellakis is not afraid to elicit major drama and this Suite opens with the confrontation between the young hotheads of Romeo’s and Juliet’s families. From barely a sound, the music exploded to quadruple fortes, and then did it again. Aggression and ominous undercurrents abounded. This exciting start unfolded to dreamy melody, skittering strings, sober solemnity, some light relief by way of a dance, then gradually built more tension, finally releasing it to a hushed finish.
Canellakis drew effective, big contrasts in this but was equally effective at the delicate clarity required in the Haydn, which she conducted without baton. The audience applauded the Prokofiev vociferously, and the musicians gave her a bow to herself, refusing to stand when she tried to raise them. This is a conductor we will be hearing much of in years to come. Let’s hope she comes back.
Meanwhile we have Baltacigil here. It is great to know that some of our own symphony musicians are of solo quality to hold their own anywhere. In this concert, flutist Jeffrey Barker, cellist Nathan Chan, violist Susan Gulkis, oboist Mary Lynch, bassoonist Seth Krimsky, plus clarinets, horns, tuba, saxophone, trumpet and many others in short solos added luster to the work.