Warmth of Valentine’s lingers at concert

Just as the snow came (again), the Spokane Symphony, under the baton of Morihiko Nakahara, presented the large audience at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox with a warmhearted Valentine of a concert.

The performance furnished the audience with its first chance to hear Mateusz Wolski as a concerto soloist.

Nakahara opened the concert with a work written as a Christmas Valentine, Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” Wagner wrote it as a morning serenade to celebrate his wife’s 34th birthday and Christmas itself. Nakahara and the orchestra produced a glowing sound that suited the intimacy and dreamlike quality of the piece.

In his introduction from the podium, the conductor explained that the “Siegfried Idyll” is a kind of seamless fantasy built on tunes Wagner had created for his opera “Siegfried.” The performance itself featured a cozily rich string sound and fine solos from the quartet of woodwind players, though it was the beginning of an uneasy evening for the orchestra’s French horn duo.

Wolski, a Polish-born, New York-trained violinist, was appointed the symphony’s concertmaster at the beginning of the 2007-‘08 season, and his playing has been impressive in many orchestral solos. He has also served as the first violinist of the Spokane String Quartet, where his chamber music accomplishments have been equally distinguished.

A concerto, especially one so ardently showy as Henryk Wieniawski’s Concerto No. 2, calls for a level of virtuoso flair that Wolski’s other roles in Spokane don’t require. It is a pleasure to report that Wolski met Wieniawski’s every challenge with unruffled elegance.

Notably impressive was the lyric sound Wolski brought to the luscious “Romanza” every violin aficionado knows so well. But Wolski was equally adept with the finger-twisting passage work and rapid-fire staccato bowing in the first movement and the finale. He brought a tart spiciness to the gypsy dance rhythms of the final Allegro.

Wolski is a young violinist who enjoys the music he is making and the demanding physicality of playing his instrument – a superb addition to the musical community.

Nakahara chose to end the concert not with an additional serving of romantic dessert, but with Joseph Haydn’s witty and ingenious Symphony No. 82 (“The Bear”).

The conductor related the history of this and the five other symphonies Haydn wrote for a concert series in Paris in 1787. And he explained how the work got its odd nickname: The last movement has a folksy tune accompanied by a bagpipe-like drone that might have accompanied the dancing bears popular as entertainment in Haydn’s time.

The performance was as festive as spring. The players brought a smile to Haydn’s rhythmic and harmonic surprises and to his infectious melodies. The complexity that underlies this symphony’s organization was completely disguised. Only the enjoyment remained. I left the hall humming Haydn’s saucy tunes – discreetly, I hope.