RALEIGH -- Conductor Grant Llewellyn jokingly urged the audience at Friday's N. C. Symphony concert not to think of the programmed works about the dead as depressing - at least not until they heard them. But Llewellyn needn't have worried, with brilliant pianist Louis Lortie ready to astound and the ever-responsive orchestra waiting to dazzle.
The concert's main works were connected through the Gregorian melody, "Dies Irae," characterizing the Day of Judgment for the dead. It has fascinated composers for centuries, Liszt and Rachmaninoff making especially creative use of its hypnotic phrases.
Liszt packs his 15-minute "Totentanz" with an astonishing range of variations on the tune, some reverent, some mocking, some classically counterpointed, some modernistically percussive. All challenge the performer, but for the virtuoso Lortie, the piece became a jaw-dropping demonstration of agility and precision. He doesn't indulge in a grand manner, but his body language and facial expressions add immensely to his interpretation. He and Llewellyn had total rapport in this gripping rollercoaster ride.
Although not connected to the evening's theme, Liszt's short "Fantasy on Motive's From Beethoven's 'The Ruins of Athens'" made a delightful contrast, especially the jaunty mutations of the familiar "Turkish March." Lortie's witty playfulness won another well-deserved ovation.
The "Dies Irae" is more subtly interwoven into the Rachmaninoff works that bookended the concert. The tone poem, "The Isle of the Dead," was inspired by an Arnold Böchklin painting of a volcanic island with a grotto of tombs being approached by a boat with a coffin.
Rachmaninoff skillfully evokes the motion of the oarsman and the sepulchral aura of the landscape. Llewellyn led a tightly controlled transversal of the piece, including the build-up to the climatic release of the earthly world, followed by hints of the "Dies Irae" as the boat recedes from shore.
Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 was a failure at its premiere, partly because of its rather choppy and repetitive nature. But the composer's constant threading of snippets of the "Dies Irae" throughout gives the work a satisfying unity. The orchestra reveled in the wide variety of effects, at one point requiring six percussionists. Llewellyn emphasized a range of dynamics and lyrical outpourings, although some doses of headlong passion would have added some welcome sweep.
