Most of Palm Beach Symphony three-century sampler shines

By KEN KEATON

Special to the Daily News

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The opening concert for the Palm Beach Symphony's 2007-08 season showed promise of great things ahead.

Music Director and Conductor Ray Robinson chose a rather generic theme for the season: "Symphonic Masterpieces: Celebrating Musical Works that Have Stood the Test of Time." That, arguably, could be said to define classical concerts in general. But that is hardly a criticism, and the year's programs should be filled with great music.

The "Three-Century Sampler" for Tuesday's Flagler Museum concert was composed of Joseph Haydn's 'Cello Concerto in C from the 18th, Johannes Brahms' Serenade No. 1 from the 19th and Sergei Prokofiev's Classical Symphony from the 20th centuries.

About the last, which opened the concert, the less said, the better. While the work's youthful exuberance wasn't fully suppressed by the strings' lack of precision and poor intonation, it wasn't helped.

But the next work redeemed all: Haydn's 'Cello Concerto in C Cello Concerto in C. This is a work especially dear to me. It was the subject of my doctoral research and I've performed it often in my arrangement for classical guitar and orchestra. The original was lost after its composition but rediscovered in 1968. It is arguably more beautiful and perfectly proportioned than the composer's more famous D major concerto.

A young man came on stage, carrying what appeared to be a large viola with an endpin. But the instrument was actually a standard 'cello. Israeli cellist Amit Peled is no longer unknown to me after this concert. His performance was magnificent: a gorgeous tone, with elemental beauty and wide range; perfect rhythm, subtle yet powerful phrasing, secure intonation; and a sense of spontaneity that never exceeded the bounds of good taste. Peled is a major artist.

The orchestra, which had been plagued with technical problems in the Prokofiev piece, meshed perfectly for the Haydn. The opening movement, Moderato? was perhaps a bit too moderate for Peled's taste; he kicked up the tempo a notch at his entry, and kept it there. The second movement was pure sweetness, meltingly phrased. The final movement was a real allegro molto, exploding like a rocket. The orchestra matched Peled in energy, excitement and precision. This was a memorable performance.

Brahms' Serenade No. 1 was the composer's first orchestral work, or at least the first he allowed to be published. Brahms was self-critical and destroyed any scores that did not meet his exacting standards. Thus, this work is fully mature.

And what a gloriously beautiful work. This is comfort music: a work more Gemutlich than Olympian. J.R.R. Tolkien might have described it with these words, written for a different context: "... less keen and lofty was the delight, but deeper and nearer to the mortal heart; marvelous and yet not strange." If anything can be so lovely, so beautiful, so delightful, can mankind ever be truly doomed?

Robinson was in his element. He shaped a delicious performance, deeply expressive yet exquisitely tasteful.

All elements were balanced with Brahms' Apollonian ideal: ma non troppo ... "but not too much." This phrase occurs over and over in Brahms' scores, an indication of an artist who demands emotion, but never excess.

Principal horn Bruce Hagreen deserves special praise. His creamy sound was featured throughout the Serenade, from the opening bars.

Also worthy of mention is Principal flute Karen Dixon, whose full, true sounds also were in the spotlight. Indeed, the winds of the Palm Beach Symphony were consistently excellent, one of the delights of the concert.