‘Sibelius, Grieg, Brahms’ @ Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
—Wayne Lee Gay
The orchestra is in top form, and the soloist is dynamically superb as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra opens its 2025-26 classical season this weekend at Bass Performance Hall under the baton of music director Robert Spano. The only caveat: safe and unimaginative programming drawn from the late nineteenth-century hit parade.
Sibelius' Finlandia—a brief, adamantly nationalist tone poem—began life in 1899 as a high-toned artistic protest of Russian rule over Finland. Its main melody, emerging from dark turmoil, became a symbol of Finland as well as a standard feature of music appreciation classes throughout the twentieth century. It's all sturdy, predictable, and enjoyable. Conductor Spano delivers the drama, and every section of the orchestra gets its brief moments in the spotlight.
Grieg's Concerto in A minor of 1868 follows immediately. It was likewise a concert standard for much of the twentieth century, before slipping downward in the repertoire thereafter. British pianist Stephen Hough boldly revives the work's emotional power for twenty-first-century audiences as he unabashedly lays out the moments of tender melody, flashy virtuosity, and (in the middle movement) almost prayerful reflection. In the final movement Grieg boldly marries Norwegian folk elements with glittering continental sophistication: Spano and Hough pull it all together momentously and thrillingly.
The orchestra's strings immediately show off remarkable precision and musical unity in the opening theme of the concert's final work, the monumental Brahms Symphony No. 4 of 1884. Technically the most academic of the late romantics, Brahms here lets loose with some of his most raw emotional content—to the point that one can almost forget the incredible intricacies of orchestration and counterpoint at work beneath the passionate surface. Spano navigates the work's universe of ideas—particularly in the compositional tour de force of the darkly grand final movement—and carries the orchestra with him completely.
One could certainly defend the presentation of these three works as a tribute to the closing decades of the nineteenth century—in some ways the apex of what we call classical music. On the other hand, each of these works might benefit even more from contrast with works drawn from the equally rich and vast repertoire of music from before 1858 and after 1900.
WHEN: September 5, 6, 7, 2025
WHERE: Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth
WEB: fwsmphony.org
