Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, oboe
Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh, PA
January 31, 2025

Sibelius: Pohjola’s Daughter, Op. 49
Vaughan Williams: Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141

Sir Mark Elder is certainly a conductor with a knack for devising intriguing and offbeat programs, and his Friday night appearance with the Pittsburgh Symphony was no exception. Sibelius’ tone poem Pohjola’s Daughter opened, beginning with darkly brooding material from the cellos. Vigorous brass joined in the lush orchestration, though any glimmers of hope in this grisly tale from the Kalevala were duly snuffed out for its quiet, somber ending. On either side of the stage, plot events from the source material were projected in sync with the music — though Sibelius’ writing is so detailed, one hardly needed it.

Vaughan Williams’ 1944 Oboe Concerto followed, featuring PSO principal Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida. This is a work the PSO has performed only once before, and nearly 30 years ago. DeAlmeida served as soloist in that performance as well, and in prerecorded remarks, she reflected on playing it as a relatively new addition to the PSO’s ranks, to now revisiting it decades later as a seasoned member.

Because the oboe doesn’t project particularly well, Vaughan Williams reduced the orchestral accompaniment to strings alone. The concerto serves as a companion piece to the composer’s Fifth Symphony (the “Pastoral”): it, too, purveys a ponderous pastoralism, and the concerto’s finale came from sketches originally intended for the symphony. DeAlmeida offered a lyrical, songful tone, keenly phrased and in delicate balance with her stringed colleagues. Cadenzas at various intervals showed her limber and dexterous.

The central movement took its cue from English country dances, sprightly and charming. The closing scherzo traversed the oboe’s range, and saw the soloist in fleet interplay with the orchestra. A closing section returned to the tender and reflective, and theme that perhaps interpolates The Last Rose of Summer in quintessential English fashion.

Shostakovich’s Fifteenth and final symphony occupied the latter half. Quite unlike any of the composer’s previous groundbreaking works in the form — or any symphony that came before or after, for that matter — it reflects on a lifetime of turmoil and triumphant in idiosyncratic fashion. Pings in the glockenspiel began, answered by a silvery flute — flippant and unsettled as only Shostakovich could do. Themes from William Tell and other works were seamlessly woven in, an eerie soundscape with the composer in a dreamlike trance of music by others that resonated with him.

A low brass chorale opened the lugubrious slow movement, highlighted by a devastatingly austere cello solo (Anne Martindale Williams). Angular material in the clarinet marked the Allegretto, along with a fine solo from concertmaster David McCarroll. Echoes of Wagner and many others were heard in the eclectic finale, as if Shostakovich wanted to use the final movement of his final symphony to comprehensively reflect on all that inspired him. The ticking of clocks, achieved through woodblocks (a device previously used in his iconoclastic Fourth Symphony), made for an ending as extraordinary as it was enigmatic.