Texas Classical Review

Guest conductor Ana María Patiño-Osorio led the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Thursday’s performance featuring renowned cellist Julian Steckel in Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor for Cello and Orchestra and the world premiere of Four Scenes from Childhood by Jonathan Leshnoff, featuring DSO principal violist Meredith Kufchak as soloist.  The program was rounded out with the Symphony No. 4 in A Major (“Italian”) of Felix Mendelssohn.

Patiño-Osorio, music director of the Orquestra Filarmónica de Medillin, was a dominant presence on the podium, exercising assured command over the orchestra with movements embodying the music: crisp, precise cues for bold and dramatic passages and smoother, relaxed motions to prompt lyrical passages.  Indeed, her bearing was such that the orchestra’s sounds seemed almost to issue directly from her gestures.

Patiño-Osorio’s authority was evident from the beginning of the Dvořák concerto, which comprised the first half of the program.  Poised on the platform alongside Steckel, she boldly directed the DSO through the orchestral exposition, setting up Steckel’s entrance.  Steckel’s cello was rich and robust, easily heard in the louder tutti passages, delicate and subtly expressive in quieter moments, but consistently full and melodious throughout the first movement. Passages that clearly required virtuosic dexterity were generally understated, contributing subtle textures more than opportunities for display.

The slow movement exuded a restrained lyricism as Steckel engaged in a dialogue with the winds that preceded an equally lyrical cadenza. 

The finale brought back the bold vigor of the first movement as Patiño-Osorio led Steckel and the DSO in building momentum to the movement’s conclusion as the two forces traded the finale’s principal theme.  Patiño-Osorio briefly suspended the mounting energy for the coda, in which Steckel expressed a last, tranquil rumination on that principal theme, before releasing the finale’s concluding flourish.

After the intermission, the DSO resumed the program with violist Meredith Kufchack in Jonathan Leshnoff’s Four Scenes from Childhood.  Leshnoff described the piece as a “viola concerto in the form of a suite of miniatures”; in this case, overtly autobiographical visions that nonetheless evoked the nostalgia of Robert Schumann’s collection to which the title alludes.

Kufchak’s viola maintained a clear, singing quality throughout the piece, while Patiño-Osorio adroitly steered the orchestra in its accompanying role. “Walks with my Father on Chilly November Nights” opened with soft, consonant arpeggios from harp and xylophones bolstering linear, pensive melodies from Kufchak as the underlying arpeggios were gradually taken up by the rest of the DSO.

“Fun at the Beach with my Family” incorporated bustling, rapidly pulsed chords from the orchestra underscoring Kufchak’s similarly brisk and buoyant melodies suggesting the excitement of holiday activities. “Alone” brought a distinct shift in mood and tempo, with Kufchak’s slower and distinctly melancholy lines answered by brief responses from clarinet and solo horn.

“Practicing Bach Partitas (Homage to Bach)” proceeded directly from the third movement.  Here, Kufchak’s steadily oscillating figures provided the rhythmic framework for the rest of the ensemble as Patiño-Osorio cued the addition of successive melodic layers building to the final cadence. The gestures and textures in Leshnoff’s piece clearly reflected the movement titles, while the accessibly tonal harmony easily suggested wistful reminiscence.

The program closed with Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, inspired by the composer’s experience of Italy during his early twenties.  Patiño-Osorio took the first movement at a brisk pace, leaning into the liveliness of the first movement’s bouncy theme embodying Mendelssohn’s impressions of Italy’s sunny climate.

Although the contrasting slow movement has the character of a solemn procession, Patiño-Osorio deftly carried over the melodic and rhythmic fluidity of the first movement into her direction of the winds with their melodic evocation of a chanting chorus of pilgrims in the Italian countryside.

Patiño-Osorio further maintained this melodic suppleness with the interwoven string lines making up the principal theme of the minuet, interrupted only by soft declamations from the horns marking the appearance of the trio.

The spirited finale shed some of the litheness of the previous movements as Patiño-Osorio ramped up the tempo to suggest a frenzied saltarello, only to restore that fluidity for the sinewy if frenetic tarantella in the finale’s middle section. With the return of the saltarello, the DSO’s pace went from frenzied to feverish as Patiño-Osorio relentlessly drove the orchestra to the symphony’s exhaustive finish. 

The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. dallassymphony.org