Wow. First, JoAnn Falletta announced she’ll be stepping down from the Virginia Symphony in 2020 and then Janna Hymes announced doing the same, departing the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra following the 2018-19 season.
Certainly the impact of Falletta on the VSO and the international attention the orchestra has attained since 1991 under her leadership is amazing. Equally amazing, perspective being what it is, is the impact Hymes has made on the WSO over her 15 years on the podium in shaping a somewhat shapeless orchestra looking for an identity into a predictably fine and solidly musical operation that regularly has produced excellent results, brought to us internationally recognized guest artists, and, in general, enhanced our collective cultural community. With Hymes, the WSO has established a reputation worth talking about and for all the right reasons.
While she’s here through 2018-19 and while there’s more to say or speculate about her departure, the emphasis here was Monday’s Kimball Theatre program that marked the current season’s close. And with reflection already setting in, this new news seemed to make Monday’s experience a bit more thoughtful concerning the pleasures it offered.
Opening the affair was J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major. One of four, it is a delightful piece of joyful dance-like segments. Although opening in a rather regal, formal style, the lines quickly liven up and, save moments between movements, it’s an essentially uninterrupted flow of melody and spirit–a prevailing sense of order, yet an equally prevailing sense of courtly pleasure. The WSO delivered the Suite with appropriate and exacting lightness, careful attention to phrasing and a delicacy that highlighted its lace-like charm and structure. Enhanced charm came with exceptionally articulate woodwind playing. Simply tops.
A more sedate feeling came with Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” Written as a birthday gift for his wife, Cosima, on the birth of their son, Siegfried, and first played on Christmas for her, “Idyll” is highly lyrical and lovely. It’s filled with a gentleness of sound and soul, as well as passion. In fact, Wagner incorporated “Idyll‘s” primary theme into the close of his opera “Siegfried” as Brunnhilde and Siegfried express young love in bloom. All in all, it’s a work that carries the listener to happy places and also provides hummable references that last for days in the ear. The WSO’s delivery was notably sensitive, gentle, and, appropriately pulsing with passion.
The program closed with the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 2 in A Minor. Less familiar than his “Organ Symphony,” “Samson and Dalila,” “Carnival of the Animals,” and a few other works, Symphony No. 2 is an interesting and engaging work that covers the spectrum of emotions, all of which were musically met by the WSO and Hymes.
The dramatic opening segues into a lively fugal development with stormy passages and intensity that brims with excitement, leading into the gentle lyricism of the Adagio. That brief respite is broken with the sunny disposition of the Scherzo and its creative merger of structure and spirit reminiscent of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. It closes with robust, high energy spirit that is a seemingly endless swirl of notes from start to finish.
The top notch playing given the Saint-Saens, and, indeed, the entire program, again illustrated the highly productive relationship between Hymes and the WSO and the high quality product now available to us. One season down, one to go.
Shulson, a Williamsburg resident, has been covering the arts for more than 40 years. He makes a guest appearance in Margaret Truman’s “Murder at the Opera.”
