Seattle Symphony shines in Strauss' "A Hero's Life"

Concert Review |

Not just in the first half, when cellist Lynn Harrell played Shostakovich brilliantly, but after intermission too, we were treated to some wonderful work on Thursday from featured string instruments.

Having bounced around since 1997 first as associate concertmaster, then as acting concertmaster, and most recently as a member of last season's concertmasterly "Gang of Four," Maria Larionoff has finally emerged as unchallenged solo holder of that important chair. The important solo part in Richard Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben" ("A Hero's Life") provided her with the perfect opportunity to confirm the wisdom of that appointment. With playing at once rich-toned and agile, she crafted a suitably authoritative portrait of Mrs. Strauss, alias "The Hero's helpmate," whose commanding ways, the composer himself said, were "just what I need."

"I don't see why I shouldn't compose a symphony about myself," Strauss remarked. "I find myself quite as interesting as Napoleon or Alexander." Certainly the massive tone-poem held up as a thoroughly cogent and entertaining chronicle of his life and career in this sumptuous performance, confidently paced under Gerard Schwarz's direction, and adorned by a variety of graceful woodwind solos and expert work from the massed Seattle Symphony ranks. The big brass section Strauss called for had a field day, including (though allowing for a couple of accidents) an array of eight horns led by the impeccable John Cerminaro.

That gentlemen, as it happens, had already appeared as one of the stars of the evening, for the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto gives the orchestra's principal horn a vital role in dialogue with its nominal soloist, and Cerminaro's rock-solid tone and poetic gift achieved a totally convincing partnership with Harrell's seductive presentation of the cello part. A musician who exudes lovability, Harrell sees the work in less insistently saturnine terms than some soloists I have heard. This was a fanciful, somewhat mellow reading, though the moments of acerbic devilry were certainly not shortchanged when they occurred, and the concerto benefitted from the unusually nuanced view the cellist achieved in strong rapport with conductor and orchestra.

To open the evening, Schwarz led the American premiere of the revised version of "Anthems and Processionals," written by the sadly short-lived Stephen Albert when he was the orchestra's composer in residence in the 1980s. It's not his best work — that title belongs perhaps to his Pulitzer-Prize-winning symphony "RiverRun" — but its discursive manner enfolds some grandly eloquent moments, and the performance did it justice.

Bernard Jacobson: bernardijacobson@comcast.net