{"id":305920,"date":"2025-10-15T17:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305920\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:37:12","slug":"a-splendidly-refreshing-dallas-chamber-symphony-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305920\/","title":{"rendered":"A splendidly refreshing Dallas Chamber Symphony concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

If that concert wouldn\u2019t have put a smile on your face, you\u2019ve a sterner constitution than your correspondent.<\/p>\n

That was the Dallas Chamber Symphony<\/a>\u2019s concert Tuesday night, at Moody Performance Hall. And the assets started with the program.<\/p>\n

It included a rare performance of Francis Poulenc\u2019s delightfully cheeky Piano Concerto \u2014 the single-piano concerto, as opposed to the two-piano concerto that does get performed now and then. Anton Nel doubled as soloist here and, opening the program, in Mozart\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major (K. 459). After intermission came the freshest, most stylish Beethoven symphony performance I\u2019ve heard in ages, in this case of the Seventh Symphony.<\/p>\n

Led by music director Richard McKay, the Dallas Chamber Symphony plays only a few concerts a season, with shifting rosters of musicians. Tuesday\u2019s concert had a particularly strong contingent, including musicians I recognized from the Fort Worth Symphony<\/a>. This and an extra rehearsal allowed McKay to cultivate great spirit and suavity in the performances.<\/p>\n

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Nel, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, maintains a busy coast-to-coast career of performances and teaching. I\u2019ve known and admired him since we overlapped in Rochester, N.Y., in the late 1980s. As he explained before the Poulenc, the French composer\u2019s 1949 concerto is rarely performed because it\u2019s a relatively short 20 minutes, and not the showiest.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Poulenc at his finest, exuding Gallic charm, wit and, yes, mischief. The opening tune will stick with you on first hearing, but what follows is less an ordered development than a cinematic shifting of scenes and atmospheres. Tangy harmonies at one point anticipate those of the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, to follow seven years later. (It\u2019s the second production of the Dallas Opera\u2019s 2025-26 season<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

One imagines smoke of Gauloises wafting through the romantic middle movement, until a suddenly rowdy pickup in tempo. In the finale there\u2019s more than a soup\u00e7on of \u201cSwanee River.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both here and in the Mozart Nel knew when the piano was meant to take the spotlight, and when it was texture filling for more important orchestral material. He dispatched fleet fingerwork in both concertos with shape as well as aplomb. Runs were never just strands of notes; one felt the pulse of life beneath them. More reflective music was lovingly formed and tapered. <\/p>\n

\"Guest<\/a>Review: Dallas International Violin Competition presents its winners<\/a><\/p>\n

The three finalists played concertos with the sponsoring Dallas Chamber Symphony.<\/p>\n

\"Violinist<\/a>Review: A French accented Dallas Chamber Symphony concert<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Ad\u00e8s arrangements of Couperin joined works by Bizet and Saint-Sa\u00ebns.<\/p>\n

Nel was clearly having fun, and McKay and the orchestra were alert, communicative partners. Phrases in the Mozart were molded and directed with particular care.<\/p>\n

For Richard Wagner, Beethoven\u2019s Seventh Symphony was \u201cthe apotheosis of the dance.\u201d So it seemed in Tuesday\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

For all the aerobic exuberance of the first-movement Vivace, there was many a deft turn of phrase. Winds supplied particularly eloquent cameos. <\/p>\n

Only in the scherzo\u2019s contrasting trio did McKay pace the music a bit more slowly than Beethoven\u2019s metronome markings for the symphony, but it lacked nothing for energy and purpose. Trumpets and horns supplied stirring summonses in the finale.<\/p>\n

Start to finish, this Beethoven was no massive, toga-clad monument, but a living, breathing \u2014 and, yes, dancing \u2014 creation. As it should be. <\/p>\n

\"Pianist<\/a>Review: A Dallas Symphony concert of Respighi and Saint-Sa\u00ebns showpieces<\/a><\/p>\n

A recent work by composer-in-residence Sophia Jani supplied evocative contrast.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Dallas Opera to open 2025-26 season with Bizet\u2019s \u2018Carmen\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The production\u2019s sets and costumes are based on designs from the Paris premiere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If that concert wouldn\u2019t have put a smile on your face, you\u2019ve a sterner constitution than your correspondent.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1576,1596,155027,7260,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-305920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-classical-music","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-chamber-symphony","12":"tag-performing-arts","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115379401279656412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}