On Thursday evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, as the snow began its thaw (against the backdrop of a politics and planet that are only heating up), music did what it sometimes does best: made things just a little better, at least for a while. In these beleaguered times, it’s tempting to interrogate the efficacy of art: what is this all for? And does it make any difference? Fortunately, the musicians tasked to try and answer these thorny questions were absolutely up to the task, even if concrete resolutions were — as ever — elusive. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗢𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮, 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗡𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱𝗮, 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝘂𝗽𝗼𝗻.
After maestro had addressed the audience, using the opportunity to remind us of his stellar predecessors — Slatkin, Eschenbach and, most pertinently for this programme, Rostropovich — Noseda and the orchestra opened their first concert of the new year with a new piece, a “concerto for orchestra” by its celebrated 38-year-old composer-in-residence, Carlos Simon, who was born in DC. Simon’s musical imagination and cultural intelligence — to say nothing of his talent for deft orchestration — were on thrilling display in this 20-minute offering, whose title, Wake Up!, works on many levels.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 — perhaps the ultimate example of the idea that a piece of music might be not quite what it seems — was also approached with energy, subtlety and panache. The performance threw up more questions than I expected from so familiar a work: always a satisfying state of affairs. Seong-Jin Cho played Beethoven’s Piano Concert No 4 © Scott Suchman In the middle, for Beethoven’s sublime Piano Concerto No 4, we were treated to the return to Washington of the young South Korean virtuoso Seong-Jin Cho. A phenomenal technician, Cho is also a poet in sound: there seemed to be no limit to the myriad colours, emotions and ideas that he was able to tease out of the 88 keys of the somewhat tired-looking Steinway at his disposal. A rapturous audience clamoured for an encore; rarely has Liszt’s Consolation No 3 felt so needed.
The Kennedy Center, so often a beacon of excellence, once again gave us something innately hopeful, juxtaposed with the general bombast, soul-sapping tensions and inflated egos of the reclaimed swamp in which it sits. The rhetoric of the slain president — chiselled into the very walls — about the timeless urgency and universal power of art reflects a truth (not just an aspiration) that this concert upheld most beautifully.
Financial Times