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The Dallas Symphony Orchestra onstage at the Meyerson Symphony Center for a concert on April 30, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott Cantrell<\/p>\n
Thursday night\u2019s Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert was all Russian all the time. With music director Fabio Luisi<\/a> conducting, the program spanned seven decades of music from tsarist times. All three works bore influences from Russian folk traditions.<\/p>\n Glinka\u2019s\u00a0Ruslan and Ludmila\u00a0Overture prefaced Tchaikovsky\u2019s\u00a0Little Russian\u00a0Symphony, with Stravinsky\u2019s\u00a0Firebird\u00a0Suite<\/a> (from the 1910 ballet, but in the 1945 revision) in the concert\u2019s second half.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Luisi\u2019s at his considerable best in dramatic music, and he made the Glinka and Stravinsky riveting. I can\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever heard the Glinka, a flashy piece in virtually any performance, taken at such a frenzied clip. The DSO violins more than earned their pay for precise dispatch of those busy scurries.<\/p>\n To hear the Stravinsky was again to marvel at the brilliant orchestration \u2014 the dancing flutters, flickers, splashes and surges of sonic colors. Even the hushed pacings at the beginning were marvels, thanks to the Meyerson Symphony Center<\/a>\u2019s awesome bass response.<\/p>\n Luisi brought all this vividly to life, from knife-edge explosions in the Infernal Dance to edge-of-audibility glows in the Berceuse. Timing everything with sensitivity, he sustained urgency from first note to last.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Among many beautifully executed solos were particularly eloquent ones from David Buck (flute), Mark\u00a0Debski (oboe), Ted Soluri (bassoon), Daniel Hawkins (horn) and Alexander Kerr (violin).<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For music composed to illustrate balletic action, I always wish audiences could be given at least minimal supertitles to tell what\u2019s happening. A St. Louis Symphony performance last November of the complete\u00a0Firebird\u00a0supplied big-screen projections of scenery and costumes from the original Ballets Russes production, with play-by-play descriptions of the action. Texts even pointed out an occasional detail of the orchestration. The DSO audience was left to its own imaginings.<\/p>\n In\u00a0The Mikado, by Gilbert and Sullivan, the executioner Ko-Ko has \u201ca little list\u201d of annoying people. So, surely, must every veteran concertgoer maintain a personal list of compositions that never would be missed.<\/p>\n One of my entries would be Tchaikovsky\u2019s Second Symphony. Its\u00a0Little Russian\u00a0sobriquet, acquired after Tchaikovsky\u2019s death, perpetuates a Russian name for Ukraine. Visiting his sister there in the summer of 1872, the composer jotted down folk tunes he heard, incorporating three of them in the symphony\u2019s first, second and fourth movements.<\/p>\n The middle movements are delightful: a lighthearted march and a restless scherzo of bright, shiny effects, with a suggestion of a\u00a0danse macabre.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The restless, nervous energy of the first movement has its moments, but some of the thematic material is pretty cheesy, with too much motivic repetition. There\u2019s more of the same in the finale, after a portentous introduction, but a gently dancing episode offers welcome relief.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n If one listener wasn\u2019t entirely convinced, Luisi and the orchestra made a strong\u00a0case for the piece.<\/p>\n Details<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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