With Claudio Abbado`s musical allegiance now firmly divided between Berlin and Vienna, Chicagoans stand to hear less and less of him as the seasons go by.
It remains to be seen how much time the newly appointed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic will be able to devote to the Chicago Symphony now that his local recording commitments are drawing to a close. This season he will be in town for only one week of subscription concerts that are to produce a CBS recording of the Tchaikovsky Third Symphony.
Abbado`s many admirers will need little encouragement, then, to hasten to Orchestra Hall for his all-Russian program Thursday and Friday nights.
(Michael Morgan will direct the Saturday repeat.) The first concert of the series on Tuesday found Abbado and the CSO in such alert accord that one would not have guessed they had not made music together in nearly two years.
They reserved their finest effort for the Symphony No. 3 (”Polish”), not heard at these concerts since Igor Stravinsky conducted the only previous CSO performance nearly 50 years ago. More ballet suite than symphony, the
”Polish” has almost none of the feverish emotionalism of the later symphonies. The only real problem is the awkward five-movement layout, which calls for great imagination and subtlety if it is to cohere.
Both qualities were present in abundance. Abbado pointed the waltz and polonaise rhythms affectionately, but he also allowed the melodies to soar with no excess sentimentality. This music is hardly second nature to the Chicago players, but they delivered playing of a very high order, with distinguished solo contributions. The recording should prove a notable addition to the series.
No less warmly received was Viktoria Mullova`s account of the first Shostakovich Violin Concerto. Let it be said straight away that the young Soviet-emigre violinist, who was making her CSO debut, is an astounding technician of her instrument. Even at the feverish tempo of the Scherzo her uncanny marksmanship never failed her. I found myself gripping tightly the arms of my seat as Mullova plunged directly from the long, fiendishly difficult cadenza into the gnarled bravura of the Burlesque finale.
What I found missing from Mullova`s performance was a true sense of the deeply personal tragedy that pervades this music, especially in the opening Nocturne. With her lean, bright sound the violinist never quite was able to realize the dark tonal intensity that other Russian violinists have found here. Still, violin playing of such accomplishment is not to be taken lightly, and for most listeners that will be more than enough to recommend her reading. No soloist could have asked for more sympathetic collaborators than Abbado and the CSO.
