Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarova has been a hot ticket in the musical world for the past few years, nabbing a couple of choice principal guest conducting positions with the Utah Symphony and the BBC Scottish Symphony. I have read some enthusiastic reviews of her work with other orchestras, and I looked at her schedule. Shes is travelling all over the place with conducting gigs in Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, England (BBC Proms), Brazil, and the U.S. (Aspen Festival) over the summer. So I was eager to witness her on the podium with the Oregon Symphony. That wish was fulfilled on April 25 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall when she led the local band in works by Lutosławski, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, and I am happy to say that Lazarova is the real deal.
It was the opening number, Lutosławski’s “Little Suite for Orchestra,” that stole the show. This relatively short (eleven minutes), four-movement piece received a magically fun performance from the orchestra. Zachariah Galatis’s piccolo sounded a delightfully carefree against a lovely harp-like underlayment from the strings. The orchestra wonderfully shifted to an unrelenting propulsive gear that was joyful. Karen Wagner’s oboe elicited a folk song quality, and Lazarova got the ensemble to build tension before releasing it. Overall, the piece sparkled like a polished gem.
Next came Simone Porter, the orchestra’s artist-in-residence, replacing saxophonist Steven Banks, who withdrew from the concert had been scheduled to play Billy Childs “Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra.” Banks’ cancellation occurred a few days after the pianist Daniel Trifonov cancelled his performance with the orchestra. A friend of mine wrote to me to ask if something weird was going on. I replied that I didn’t think anything unusual was happening, but it was truly odd. Over the many years that I have reviewed the orchestra, I have not seen two cancellations in a row until now.
Simone Porter took Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at an extremely fast pace. She didn’t linger anywhere in the piece. She executed all of the quicksilver runs flawlessly, but it seemed that she would have been given a speeding ticket – especially for her quicksilver fingerwork in the last movement. It was amazing to behold, yet her lightening-fast agiltiy didn’t allow the music to breathe, and it all became somewhat dry and somewhat devoid of emotion.
Nevertheless, the audience gave Porter a standing ovation, and she responded with the third movement (“Sarabanda”) from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor. This time her playing had more gracefulness and a calming effect.
In the second half of the program, Lazarova and the orchestra delivered a thrilling interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. It offered scintillating sforzandos, true pianissimos, and gentle flowing themes. In the fast-moving final movement, the strings created the effect of a flock of birds flying by and Principal Bassoonist Carin Miller equaled that by giving an effervescent and dance-like kick to a devilishly tricky passage.
Lazarova is an electrifying conductor who has a great future ahead of her. It would be wonderful to see her back on the podium at the Schnitz again in the near future.
P.S. One of the cool things about this concert was the introduction that reminds the audience to turn off their cell phones. This is usually a recording in English with Fred Child’s voice followed by violinist Inés Voglar Belgique giving the reminder in Spanish (she is a native of Venezuela). But this time around, we heard the voice of double-bassist Mariya-Andoniya Andonova, who is from Bulgaria. She spoke in Bulgarian, and there were audible gasps from a large contingent of Bulgarian visitors who were very surprised to hear their own language. That really helped to set the tone for the evening, and at the end of the concert, the Bulgarian contingent gave Lazarova a bouquet of flowers – something that you rarely see in Portland.