This is Jeffrey Kahane's band - but, as conductor laureate, Alsop has become a symphonic godmother to an orchestra she molded into a top-notch ensemble. Her first visit of the new season firmly demonstrated that, after all these years, she knows the CSO, and they know her. Yet, there was a newfound energy and freshness that erased any fears this might be a mere run-through.
One heard the expected tension in the opening movement, the familiar serenity in the two inner movements and the well-known dramatics of the finale. But then, we'd never heard the final movement's pizzicato passages begun so quietly - offered in a whisper so as to draw us even closer to the music. In maintaining a restrained tempo for the famous chorale, Alsop injected the finale with a powerful tension released in waves of triumphant sound.
Working without a score, she prowled the podium, seeming to challenge her players to dig even deeper into this familiar work. Earlier, she served up music by the Schumanns, highlighted by a sterling performance of the A-minor Piano Concerto. No, not Robert's famous one - the undeservedly neglected one by his brilliant wife, Clara.
With soloist Angela Cheng providing consistently authoritative playing, this tuneful work charmed its listeners. Though hardly revolutionary, it contains some original touches, principally the lovely slow movement, in which Cheng offered a dreamy solo, joined by principal cellist Jurgen deLemos, as the rest of the orchestra fell silent. The evening opened with a charged reading of Robert Schumann's Manfred Overture, which captured all of the music's sense of restless unease.
When and where: 7:30 p.m. today and 2:30 p.
m. Sunday in Boettcher Hall, 14th and Curtis streets. Of note: Marin Alsop conducts music by Brahms and the Schumanns.
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