Review: Oregon Symphony elicits lovely Mendelssohn with Leong and shines with Poska

 

Photo credit: Jason Quigley

Canadian virtuoso Kerson Leong gave a superb performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Oregon Symphony (April 29) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. So did guest conductor Kristiina Poska, who collaborated expertly with Leong and also inspired the orchestra with drive and precision in works by Britten and Beethoven.

Both Leong and Poska made their Oregon Symphony debuts int the concert series over the weekend despite busy schedules. Leong gave master classes in Rome, Italy just a few days before flying to Portland, replacing Baiba Skrida, who withdrew for personal reasons. Before coming to Portland, Poska spent the prior weekend conducting the Minnesota Orchestra.

The artistic resumes of Leong and Poska are impressive. Leong (age 27) won the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in 2010 and has enjoyed an international career ever since. Estonian-born Poska (age 45) is the Chief Conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Principal Guest Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony, and in 2025 will become the Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes. She is the first female conductor to be named to those positions.

Leong delivered everything you could want in the Mendelssohn. He evoked the grandeur and beautify of each phrase, tailoring his sound down to silvery thread during the most delicate passages and expanding it with elan to the boldest ones. The entire piece was incredible well-shaped with impeccable articulation of quicksilver lines that required the utmost in technical virtuosity.

Listeners eagerly paid attention of all of the nuances of this beloved piece, and rewarded Leong with a standing ovation and many bravos, which brought him back to center stage several times. Leong responded with an encore, Francisco Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” (‘Memories of the Alhambra”) in an arrangement for violin by Ruggiero Ricci. With the constant wistful tremolo against a countering tic-toc line, it seemed as if two people were playing instead of just one, and all was immaculately rendered by Leong. That caused another round of vociferous applause.

Under Poska, the orchestra created the hauntingly vivid moods of Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from his opera “Peter Grimes.” The sound of waves crashing into a rocky shoreline while seagulls circled and cried painted an isolated and beautiful, but tragic scene. Sometimes the music pulsated with anticipation, and stormy fourth movement, with its snarly brass and ascendent strings pitching everything into the heavens subsided into a quiet morass before getting whipped up into a tempestuous finale.

Poska also ardently commanded the orchestra, evoking an outstanding performance of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony. Impressively conducting from memory, she deftly sculpted the piece from beginning to end, eliciting terrific dynamics that kept the music fresh – like hearing the double-basses in the first movement. Attacks were sharp, and pauses were precise. The lyrical lines had an wonderful ebb and flow, and the wicked solo that Principal Cellist Nancy Ives executed – with lovely horn accompaniment – in the third movement was a highlight.

One interesting point about Poska is that she is left-handed, but she enjoyed using her right hand very effectively, throwing jabs and punches to elicit crisp attacks from the musicians. She conveyed each piece with judicious tempos so that the Britten and Beethoven never dragged. Amidst loud applause from the audience, she graciously signaled recognition for contributions by individuals and sections of the orchestra.

I hope that we will see Leong and Poska on the stage at the Schnitz in a return engagement in the very near future.