midnight sun – kevo, finland
photo by josef stueferÂ
It’s the morning (afternoon, really, but daylight saving time be damned!) after our first classical series concert with our two Finnish guest artists, conductor Pietari Inkinen and violinist Pekka Kuusisto. In a previous post, I wrote about the often mysterious process of getting to know a new guest conductor and the factors which can complicate this often elaborate dating dance. I was withholding judgment, waiting to see what would develop, on Mr. Inkinen, at that time.  Now I think I have some opinions that can actually hold some water on the subject.
In short, I’m happy with Inkinen, and I think that most of the orchestra shares my opinion (or at least my friends who are the hardest to please seem to like him).
Rehearsals are often a difficult means to determine the worth of a conductor. A real technician can come in, show you insights into a score that you never knew before, dissect the piece, get the orchestra listening to each other, and make rehearsals a fantastic laboratory that makes the 2 and 1/2 hours seem like 20 minutes. Then the performances come, and it is all flat – all mechanics and no poetry. The orchestra plays like a Swiss watch, effortlessly the scores of independent moving parts coalesce into one humming machine. There is beauty and power in such performances, but is there soul?
On the other hand, you can have a conductor come in and just sort of float through the pieces. Sections play roughly together, the overall flow of the pieces are established, but nothing really gells in the rehearsal. You begin to wonder why you are there at all – why not just run through the pieces and go home and wait for the performances? But something strange is happening, and just what that is isn’t revealed until the performances. All of a sudden there is this unique energy happening. Those vague flapping gestures suddenly have urgent musical import, the pieces flow and sing, and the concert seems to last only 20 minutes. They might not be the cleanest performances ever heard, but they sing with a deep current of poetry.
As for the violinist Pekka Kuusisto, I’m not sure about him, yet. He is obviously prodigiously gifted and has technique to burn, but he also has so many ideas about sound, in particular, that phrases never have a chance to sing and cover large arcs of time – there is always a tinkering going on, which to my ear interrupts the flow and distracts the ear. I’d be interested to hear him in a less acerbic concerto, the Stravinsky lends itself to such treatment more than perhaps any other, but I’m afraid that the Brahms or Sibelius might get the same treatment, and I don’t think I could bear to listen to that. Aside from that, Kuusisto is an active and interesting presence on stage, and well worth hearing. Chances are, you won’t hear another violinist like him in your lifetime. And variety is the spice of life, eh?