Review: Dallas Symphony supplies brilliant Strauss, challenging new Ukrainian works

One could hardly overlook the tragic political undertow of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Saturday night program. Led by a Ukrainian guest conductor, Kirill Karabits, it included new war-born works by two Ukrainian composers, and, in Inbal Segev, an Israeli-born cellist.

Two Richard Strauss showpieces — Don Juan and a Rosenkavalier Suite — were rather awkward frames for the very serious new works, but they certainly showed off the orchestra. Karabits, by the way, is chief conductor of England’s Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, where one of his predecessors was former DSO music director Andrew Litton.

Getting its world premiere here, Victoria Vita Polevá’s The Bell — Symphony No. 4 for cello was co-commissioned by the DSO (with underwriting from the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund) and the London Philharmonic. The title refers to the chimings and tollings through much of the piece, but also to the Latin word for war, bellum. It is, as Polevá writes, “a work written during the war and by the war.”

In an unbroken 25 minutes, it’s definitely a symphony with a prominent cello part rather than a cello concerto. Backed by muted dissonances that gradually grow louder, the cello keens in long, sustained notes in narrow ranges, until cutting loose with grunts and desperate dithers.

The orchestra suggests hope in rising, less dissonant music, but gentle ripples and muted slides have the last words.

This is hardly easy listening, and with all that backing dissonance Segev’s pitches weren’t always clear Saturday night. But the audience responded with considerable enthusiasm, and, spotlit in one of the Meyerson Symphony Center boxes, Polevá acknowledged the applause.

Speaking briefly before Anna Korsun’s Terricone, Karabits said the piece “very much reflects the turbulent world we are living in at the moment.” The title is a word for piles of processing wastes from mining operations.

Eleven and a half minutes long, the piece starts with literal screams from the musicians, continuing with siren-like effects, raspings, clangings and woozy trombone glissandos. Passages vaguely notated in the score deliberately blur textures.

A hush that isn’t really calm makes much of muted string slides, eerie pulsings, flutterings, sonic glitters and suggestions of bird twitters. After a crescendo, pitches sink as winds retreat into silence.

As with Polevá, Korsun got a spotlit bow in the Meyerson box.

From a raw, randy, rowdy opening through passages of at least feigned tenderness, Strauss’ Don Juan opened the concert in a boldly characterized and brilliantly executed performance. Brasses raised stirring sounds, and there were particularly fine solos from principal oboist Erin Hannigan and co-concertmaster Nathan Olson.

Cobbled together by someone other than Strauss — Artur Rodzinski? — this particular Rosenkavalier Suite unfortunately ends with a loud rehash of earlier waltzes rather than the opera’s gentle final winks. And Karabits pumped up the famous trio more than it needed.

But he daringly stretched the music here and there for maximum expressive effect, and again the orchestra played at its brilliant best.

Details

Repeats at 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $42 to $193. 214-849-4376, dallassymphony.org.