Epic 'Kullervo' brings bracing gust of icy Nordic air to Grant Park
July 30, 2011
by John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
"Kullervo" represents a side of Jean Sibelius' output few American
listeners know. Completed in 1892 and based on the Finnish mythology
known as the Kalevala (a source of inspiration throughout his life),
this early, five-movement work is less a symphony than a series of
symphonic poems, with a cantata embedded in the middle. Because Sibelius
forbade performances during his lifetime, the piece had to wait until
1958, the year after his death, to receive its premiere.
"Kullervo" has gained traction outside its native land over the last
couple of decades, but, unless I am mistaken, Chicagoans had to wait
until Friday night to experience it for the first time "live" in the
city. The talented Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu returned to the Grant Park Music Festival to lead the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, and vocal
soloists, in a committed, absolutely riveting performance. The program
(repeated on Saturday) was typical of the adventuresome undertakings
Grant Park brings off better than just about any festival around.
"Kullervo" practically cries out to be performed at a big outdoor
classical venue. Its 73 minutes are cast on an epic scale, with stirring
choruses and dramatic vocal solos supported by evocative orchestral
writing depicting crucial moments in the life of the tragic hero,
Kullervo. One's experience of "Kullervo" on recordings suggests that
Finnish conductors are more closely attuned to the Sibelius idiom than
others, and so it was here. Despite limited rehearsal time, Lintu
galvanized the orchestra and chorus (prepared by director Christopher
Bell) to deliver one of the finest performances the Grant Park public
has heard of anything, this or any other season.
His tempos were well chosen and he was fully invested in the spirit of
the work, beginning with an Introduction alive to its tragic portents
and mythic sweep. His direction proved always decisive but was pliant
enough to bring out the poetry of the nature-music of the soprano's
lament in the central section, "Kullervo and His Sister." The
orchestral playing was remarkably strong throughout – remarkable because
the score is riddled with enough technical and musical difficulties to
challenge the very best of orchestras. One would have thought this was a
repertory piece for the Grant Parkers, rather than a work they had seen
for the first time only last week.
Playing brother and sister, the real-life brother and sister team of
Finnish soprano Johanna Rusanen and baritone Ville Rusanen kept the
dramatic intensity crackling in their tense exchanges, with the incisive
men's voices of the Grant Park Chorus lending additional urgency. I'm no expert in Finnish diction but I was
amazed by how convincingly the choristers wrapped their tongues around
the Finnish text.
The soprano sang with amplitude and power, but also beautiful sound; the
baritone matched her in vocal command, though he could have been more
woefully expressive. The lament for Kullervo's death was shattering in
its somber gravitas, whose effect not even wailing sirens from nearby Michigan Avenue could dispel. Lintu, who made his Grant Park debut in 2004, merits an annual berth on the festival's roster.
Sergei Rachmaninov's brief 1902 cantata, "Vesna" ("Spring"), made a
welcome curtain-raiser. The Russian composer found his lyrical voice in
this setting of an odd Russian text in which a husband bent on killing
his adulterous wife is stayed from carrying out his murderous plan by
the ecstatic arrival of spring.
A comparison with the performance heard several weeks ago at Ravinia under James Conlon's
direction revealed trade-offs. Lintu was rather more incisive and his
chorus better focused than Conlon's Milwaukee Symphony voices. Both
soloists sang well, but Conlon's baritone, Vasily Ladyuk, with his
deeper, darker, more authentically Slavic sound, had the edge over
Lintu's Ville Rusanen.