Conductor Juraj Valcuha takes NSO program to a near-slog

The Slovakian conductor Juraj Valcuha made his National Symphony Orchestra debut in 2010 with an ambitious program of Haydn, Szymanowski and Mahler; I liked his conducting, and his restraint. He returned in 2012 with Szymanowski, Mozart, Ravel and Debussy; I still liked his restraint. He came back this week and conducted, on Thursday night, an arguably somewhat less ambitious program of Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" suite, the Bruch violin concerto and Tchaikovsky's Fifth, which fits with the NSO's ...