Review: Musical mishaps mar opening performance

Published: September 18, 2007

From the New York Philharmonic to the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, orchestras large and small have the occasional off night when playing isn't quite up to snuff. For the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, it was the opening night of the 2007-08 concert season. And while that fact wasn't always obvious from the audience's applause, the concert's two major works were compromised by a variety of shortcomings. More about those later.

Music director Joel Levine kicked off the orchestra's 19th season with the local premiere of Michael Torke's

"Javelin.” Commissioned in 1996 for the 50th anniversary of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, this John Williams-inspired curtain raiser was filled with colorful flourishes, rhythmic propulsion and some clever melodic invention one would expect to find in a "piece d'occasion.”

Trigger reflexes and precision of ensemble can suffer after a summer off, and that proved to be the case for the remainder of this concert. Closing the first half was Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition,” a work originally composed for piano solo. In its orchestral guise, deftly created by Maurice Ravel, "Pictures” is an ideal work to show off the orchestra's principal players.

Unfortunately, those are the same spots where mishaps typically occur. One could cite the shaky trumpet in the third "Promenade,” missed tuba notes in "Bydlo,” an errant bassoon entrance in another "Promenade” and an overbearing trombone in "Baba Yaga.” But there were attractive moments as well, from the impressive brass passage that opens "Catacombs” to a resonant string choir in "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle” to fine woodwind chorales in "The Great Gate of Kiev.” Taken collectively, it just wasn't a picture-perfect performance.

Italian pianist Fabio Bidini, a finalist in the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition, returned for an encore engagement with the orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor.” This was the orchestra's fifth outing (in 19 seasons) with this work, a piece that seems to have as many enthusiasts as detractors.

Bidini opened the work with an air of majesty, his bold chordal passages cutting through the orchestral fabric with ease. Before long though, his confidence began to waver. First, an arpeggiated figure went awry, then there was some heavy-handedness in a fortissimo passage. Indeed, some of Bidini's interpretive choices seemed calculated more for show than for musicality. And, on more than one occasion, soloist and orchestra briefly separated as Bidini tried to push the tempo faster.

In the central Andante, uncharacteristic piano outbursts were at odds with the shape and dynamics of the movement. The finale, in turn, found Bidini engaging in pianistic excesses, from playing fast and loose with some passages to inaccurate flourishes in others. It all brought to mind the old saying that you can fool some of the people, some of the time.

Knowing well the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's distinguished history and its impressive musical abilities, I have no doubt that this fine orchestra will quickly rebound. I wish I could say the same about Bidini.

— Rick Rogers

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