Review: Minnesota Orchestra performs Beethoven with guest pianist Yefim Bronfman

It’s a marvelous weekend for Beethoven in the Twin Cities. Not only are conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra delivering a deeply powerful version of the composer’s “Eroica” Symphony, but one of the truly great concert pianists currently performing is onstage at Orchestra Hall, serving as soloist for a subtly spectacular take on Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

That would be Yefim Bronfman, who joined guest conductor David Robertson and the Minnesota Orchestra Friday evening for an inspiring spin through Beethoven’s (arguably) finest concerto, a piece that finds the most fiery of composers in a reflective mood.

It proved not only the most captivating performance of a Beethoven piano concerto I’ve experienced in several years, but felt like a return to the kind of breathtaking Beethoven that the orchestra was presenting earlier this century under Osmo Vanska’s charismatic leadership.

The concerto was the summit at the center of this weekend’s Minnesota Orchestra concerts, bookended by works from two living American composers who are still creating vital work. Adolphus Hailstork’s First Symphony is from 1988, while John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” Symphony is gleaned from the composer’s landmark 2005 opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who spearheaded the creation of the atomic bomb.

Each piece received an interpretation both meticulously crafted and emotionally involving. Although rare are the visits from Robertson — the longtime leader of the St. Louis Symphony — Friday’s concert felt and sounded like the work of a very successful partnership.

One of the benefits of the Minnesota Orchestra’s increased commitment to the works of African American composers is that audiences have learned of the gifts of Hailstork. Past performances have left the impression that he could be deemed analogous to playwright August Wilson in his poetic chronicles of African American lives, and his First Symphony fits that framework with the harmonies and rhythmic structures it borrows from the gospel tradition.

But it also often sounds like an homage to Igor Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. Its lush, melancholy slow movement proved a particularly fine fit for this orchestra’s strengths.

Although past Twin Cities visits have left the impression that Bronfman could be quite capable of breaking a piano with his muscular playing, his take on Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto was astoundingly gentle, transmitting a spirit of empathy and kindness.

He was technically impeccable, his sojourns up and down the keyboard fleet, fluid and subtle, gliding gracefully between dynamic levels, but always engaging the ear with soft attacks.

And what cadenzas. In the first movement, Bronfman took the concerto’s simple opening theme and created a little set of variations on it, while the closing Rondo featured emphatic surges that dissolved into a sense of placid acceptance. The instant standing ovation the concerto earned was rewarded with a lovely Nocturne by Frederic Chopin.

Robertson was the first conductor to record Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” Symphony (with the St. Louis Symphony) and he seemed in complete control of a work that can feel dauntingly chaotic. It’s an unsettling work that fits an unsettling story, appropriately explosive and bearing grave menace when it’s not.

It was a terrific performance of a very challenging piece, one highlighted by exceptional solos from principal French horn Michael Gast and trumpeter Manny Laureano, who eloquently conveyed the sense of contrition in Oppenheimer’s closing aria without singing a word.

Minnesota Orchestra

With: Conductor David Robertson and pianist Yefim Bronfman

What: Works by Adolphus Hailstork, Beethoven and John Adams

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Tickets: $20-$106, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.