The Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra executed with aplomb a complex and challenging program on February 13 for its first concert of the 2014 opening season.
As Maestro Marco Parisotto from Canada took the stand for his inaugural performance as the new musical director, the air was shimmering with anticipation in Teatro Degollado. Billed as “The Ninth,” the evening was a night of nothing but Beethoven, beginning with arias for voice and orchestra and culminating in the master’s most daunting symphony. A virtually full to bursting house obviously anticipated a sophisticated experience worthy of their tastes, and they were not disappointed.
Taking on Beethoven’s last, most celebrated and debated opus, the Ninth Symphony, is no simple proposition for any orchestra. Indeed, in some corners, it may be argued that nothing more can be said about the work – it has become both monumental and trivialized, loved almost to death. The instantly recognizable “Ode to Joy” with its Enlightenment themes is now a meme in our contemporary world, popping up in our consciousness almost as a logo, serving as background music for the fall of the Berlin Wall and for the resistance in Tiananmen Square, as the theme music for the European Union, as a backdrop for television commercials, or as the stuff of flash mobs on YouTube.
Nevertheless, on Thursday evening, Beethoven’s blinding originality, composed as a journey from cosmic chaos through anxiety and despair to an ecstatic, rending plea for universal harmony, was undeniably a tempting challenge for a newly forged coalition between a freshly contracted conductor and his anticipative orchestra, to be played out onstage before an audience that is expecting no less than excellence.
It’s a deep pleasure to see a conductor stride onto the stage well prepared and sure of his approach to a musical work. Lithe and energetic, the youthful Parisotto, who was announced just days before in a press conference as having signed a five-year contract with the JPO, was masterful at coaxing the maximum response from his musicians, as he repeatedly urged the sublime woodwinds to maintain their own against the strings in the first and second movements. He was deeply engaged with the orchestra at every turn, and they responded with bright enthusiasm and fine precision at virtually every point, adroitly displaying their reputation as a first-rate regional orchestra. Mexico’s second city does the country proud to have this caliber of musicianship.
Together with the ebullient Jalisco State Chorus, soprano Maria Katrzarava, mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Paz, tenor Richard Margison and baritone Luis Ledesma created a wall of glorious vocal expression in the orchestra shell for the final movement’s crescendos. Visiting tenor Margison, a Canadian with an impressive performance pedigree, opened the evening with his commanding interpretation of Florestán’s aria from “Fidelio.” The young Miss Katzarava acquitted herself with fiery grace in the program’s second offering, the famous aria of a woman scorned, “Ah, Perfido!” op. 65. The pieces were apt preludes to the evening’s main event.
A hopeful, ambitious opening night for the symphony season concluded with an ecstatic clamor as the audience leapt to its collective feet in praise for the magnificent performance by everyone on the crowded stage. If this assessment seems a bit overstated, forgive the writer. As a witness to my first symphony performance since my recent move to Guadalajara, I was overwhelmed by the performers’ commitment and precision and by the assured energy of their new conductor. The season opener bodes well for the next five years of Jalisco’s orchestra under Parisotto’s baton. We should expect that with this beginning, future concerts should launch the JPO into a new level of performance and exposure to an ever-wider audience. This is certainly music as celebration, and Tapatios seem ready to celebrate their new musical collaboration.