This week’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert may be titled “Gabel Conducts Beethoven,” but forgive me, Ludwig lovers — the real news here is the non-Beethoven half of the program: RPO premieres of suites from Francis Poulenc’s ballet “Les Animaux modéles” and Sergei Prokofiev’s opera “War and Peace.”
“Gabel” is Fabien Gabel — who has become a popular RPO guest conductor — joined by Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen in his RPO debut. And the first half was indeed Beethoven, featuring Pohjonen in the Piano Concerto No. 1.
French conductors are often typecast in French music — not a bad thing, of course, if you like French music. (I do.) In previous RPO appearances, Gabel’s elegant style has seemed ideal for composers like Debussy and Dukas, but also effective in Bartók and Tchaikovsky. Last night, Gabel’s performance was also quite satisfying in Beethoven. The “Egmont” Overture, which featured some handsome string playing, nicely captured this short, intense work’s Beethoven-in-a-nutshell quality.