‘Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Jani’ @ Dallas Symphony
Photos courtesy of Dallas Symphony Orchestra
—Wayne Lee Gay
Two romantic orchestral favorites and a significant world premiere come together for this weekend's concerts of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with a rising and brilliant Norwegian-born conductor at the podium. The DSO tends to program Rachmaninoff on Valentine’s Day weekend, paired with a bit of Valentine-focused marketing. The strategy appeared to work Thursday night with a larger-than-usual audience for the first of the weekend's four performances.
That most romance-focused of all orchestral tone poems, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, opens the program; conductor Tabita Berglund immediately demonstrates an impressive command of musical structure, subtly shaping the foreboding introductory sections to pull toward the grandeur of the familiar "love theme." Her physical presence is subtle and efficient, matched with impressive attention to detail—for instance, in making sure that the persistent horn call beneath the main theme plays its significant role.
The world premiere of the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Sophia Jani follows. Jani is the Dallas Symphony's German-born composer-in-residence, and the concerto displays an ear-pleasing blend of tradition and innovation. The violin solo, brilliantly and devotedly performed by American Melissa White, pays homage to the grand tradition of the violin virtuoso, with themes that could have been part of a nineteenth-century concerto. But a shimmeringly gorgeous, often surprising orchestral accompaniment keeps the work clearly in the twenty-first century. A very enthusiastic audience response Thursday confirmed the impression that this is a potential addition to the concerto repertoire of the violin.
Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, the final work on the program, is a masterpiece of late romanticism. The glorious melodic gifts that characterize the composer's Second and Third Piano Concertos, composed decades earlier, are in full function, but with an sharpness and energy born of his long years in western Europe and especially in America after exile from his Russian homeland. Here, conductor Berglund demonstrates impressive insight into the magnificent orchestral colors and the flawless structure Rachmaninoff created. The musicians of the Dallas Symphony respond beautifully, both in the grand passages for full orchestra and in the numerous instrumental solos.
WHEN: February 12-15, 2026
WHERE: Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
WEB: dallassymphony.org
