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Commentary
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Concert Report
Pomerium at St. John's Cathedral (March 1)
by Daniel Hathaway
The New York renaissance choir called Pomerium has been around since 1972. After nearly four decades, the thirteen singers, led by their founder, Alexander Blachly, have accumulated years of ensemble experience but still manage to bring a fresh and newly-minted sound to the repertory of one of the most creative eras in music history.At the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Monday (March 1), the ensemble explored a fascinating corner of that repertory in their program, "Mannerist Music of the Renaissance". The extensive program notes quoted Walter Friedlaender's definition of Mannerism as "an imaginative idea unsupported by imitation of nature", which is to say highly artificial, or as Blachly's noted in his verbal comments, "this is music full of disturbance and surprise". The eleven motets on the program by Andreas de Silva, Giaches de Wert, Carlo Gesulado, Claudio Monterverdi and Orlande de Lassus "push the envelope" of Renaissance musical style toward more overt expressiveness, and all of the composers represented had some kind of relationship to the avant-garde Italian court of Ferrara.
Mr. Blachly slotted the pieces into five broad technical categories: Chromaticism, Extreme Chromaticism, Leaping Vocal Lines, Intensifying Harmonies and Unraveled Musical Fabric; and subdivided these further under emotional or affective headings: The Miraculous, Sorrow, Suffering, Remorse, Betrayal, Desperation, Terror, The Voice of God, Foreboding, Abandonment and Pathos. Pretty gloomy stuff, you would think, except that these five composers chose their texts in order to show off their compositional prowess in expressing extreme emotions. The results were anything but depressing.
De Silva's 'Omnis pulchritudo Domini' began the program on a transcendent note in its sometimes etherial depiction of Christ's Ascension into heaven. Back on earth, Rachel wept torturously over her slain children in Wert's 'Vox in Rama', and Christ broke out into a cold sweat on the Mount of Oilves accompanied by strangely juxtaposed chords in Gesualdo's 'In monte Oliveti'.
'Plorat amare' -- the first of two Monteverdi madrigals fitted out (by others) with sacred words -- was also all about tears -- here the weeping of Peter after his denial of Jesus (the original was titled 'Piagn' e sospira'). Later, the contrafactum of Monteverdi's 'Cruda Amarilli', 'Felle amaro', sets Christ's remorseful thoughts from the cross with highly theatrical mood-shifts. The first half ended with Gesualdo's strongly expressive Maundy Thursday responsory 'Judas, mercator pessimus'. It's easy to see how the always inventive Gesualdo appealed to such 20th century composers as Peter Warlock and Igor Stravinsky: his fresh-sounding music still surprises the ear.
Only thirty minutes had passed at this point, but there was more concentrated intensity in this half hour than in most full-length choral concerts. Still, the audience was ready to take in more.
After the break, three theatrical, madrigalesque motets by Wert were sung in a row. 'Egressus Jesus', a depiction of Jesus' strange conversation with a Canaanite woman, narrated the story in straightforward homophony, then turned dramatic as the dialogue intensified. 'Ascendente Jesu' told the tale of Jesus calming the sea, colorfully depicting the waves and the disciples' cries of "Save us! We are perishing", as well as the great calm at the end. 'Saule, Saule', a text famously and also very dramatically told by Heinrich Schütz, was busy and intentionally chaotic.
After the previously mentioned Monteverdi 'Felle amaro', Pomerium turned to Gesualdo's famous 'O vos omnes', perfectly tuning its oddly juxtaposed harmonies. The concert ended with a work by the normally very conservative Lassus (who nonetheless also showed up to see what was happening in Ferrara). 'Vide homo', like 'Felle amaro', is a monologue by Christ about the pains he has suffered for an ungrateful humankind. Though this motet's Mannerism was mild compared to other works on the program, it did begin to demonstrate the dissolution of polyphonic texture that would become almost complete in the early Baroque.
Throughout the evening, Pomerium sang with fine intonation and blend, presenting these interesting (and difficult) works with authority and confidence. Although the program was on the short side, one left feeling totally satisfied with the experience. For those who wanted more, Pomerium graciously offered two encores: short and unmannered motets by Byrd and Lassus.
Concert Report
New Music at Youngstown State University (March 3)
by Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin
Concerts of new music are exciting events, especially when they bring together composers of several generations who are obviously enthusiastic about the act of musical creation. Such was the case on Wednesday evening (March 3) in Bliss Recital Hall at Youngstown State University as the New Music Society and the New Music Guild, Inc. presented their "Annual Winter Pops" Concert with the Dana Composers Ensemble and guest artists Corinne Morini, soprano, Anthony Ruggieri, piano & Micah Howard, double bass. Composers and performers ranged from YSU undergraduates to adults several generations older."Winter Pops" seems a strange way to describe a new music concert, but director Robert Rollin explained that there were a number of lighter works on tonight's program among its seven first performances.
YSU senior Daniel Brandt was represented by three works. His 'Prelude for Guitar', an alternatively ruminative and agitated work engagingly played by Margaret Jones served as an attractive prelude to the evening as well. Stephen Cline was at the piano for Brandt's 'Three Nocturnes' (exploring the moods of an insomniac whose restlessness was supposed to end in sleep but who still seemed to be tossing and turning at the end), a set of pieces that also explored various styles and textures. Brandt's third work, 'Synapses', for alto saxophone and bass clarinet, expertly performed by Joseph Finkel and Patrick Fulton, showed the most well developed personality of all of Brandt's works. Motives were effectively tossed back and forth with cerebral electricity.
Richard Zacharias contributed a three-movement 'Sonata for oboe and piano' with colorful titles ("Umbrellas in the Monsoon", "Bounce, Pray, Bounce More") that put forth and developed some interesting musical ideas. Its performance by oboist Nathan Welch and pianist Tim Webb was dedicated by the composer to Dana faculty member Tedrow Perkins in honor of his distinguished work with students. We'd like to hear the sonata again after it settles in a bit more. A little distraction in this performance was the regular jettisoning of score pages from the piano onto the floor.
Three short works also received their first performances. Sophomore Samantha Hogan's 'Reign of Thunder' for flute and piano may not quite have evoked the stormy day the composer had in mind, but its ideas were well formed and both flutist Shanyse Strickland and pianist Cory Davis nailed its deceptively tricky details. Harpist Jacob Chevien played his own, improvisatory piece, 'Were I to Forget Thee', creating some lovely sounds and using some extended techniques. Tim Webb returned to the piano for a fleet-fingered account of his 'Devil's Playground', accurately described in the notes as "a very rapid movement influenced by bebop jazz style".
Director Robert Rollin offered two first performances on Wednesday evening. First up, his 'Three Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson', written for and performed by soprano Corinne Morini (pictured above), with Anthony Ruggiero at the piano. The poems reflect Dickinson's personal neuroses in "I dreaded that First Robin So" (with all its scary backyard creatures) as well as her metaphysical visions in "The Brain is Wider than the Sky" and "Musicians Wrestle Everwhere" (the latter also set for chorus by Elliot Carter in his earlier and more accessible style period). Rollin's accomplished settings tended toward the abstract rather than the affective. Much of the piano writing was in a sparse, semi-dissonant two part texture which cast the vocal line in sharp relief and allowed the words to come through clearly. Ms. Morini was a superb interpreter of her vocal line, floating some astonishing high passages in the third piece and negotiating some complicated vocalises Rollins introduced into the third song.
Rollins' 'Fantasy/Samba' has been waiting a year for its premiere. Pittsburgh Symphony bassist and YSU graduate Micah Howard (pictured above) ended the suspense with a strong performance of this Brazilian inspired solo work -- his own request for a dance based piece -- simultaneously bowing and plucking the strings, tapping the top board and getting into the groove of the dance rhythms. The work ends with long notes, the final of which dramatically fades into silence. Rollin had first hand experience with Brazilian samba as pianist in a jazz trio with Francisco Mondragon Rio in the 70's, and he obviously knew what he was doing in this piece.
The last work on the program, a solo guitar piece by the late Augustin Barrios called 'Una limosna por el amor de Dios', brought the program to a meditative and elegiac conclusion. Its simultaneous layers (bass on the bottom, melody in the middle, fast filigree tremolos on top) were beautifully played by Ben Dague.
Held in the expansive, multi-purpose Bliss Recital Hall, tonight's concert was agreeably informal, and the good-sized audience was highly supportive of each composer's and performer's efforts. A great atmosphere for encouraging creativity. The professional-looking program included extensive notes and advertising from a bank, a TV channel, a fashion designer, an apartment building and a state representative all of whom pledged themselves to "supporting the arts at YSU", indicating what a central position the University occupies in the cultural life of the region.
The next big new music event at YSU is the 26th Dana New Music Festival, which will take place from April 21-25. Guest artists include the South African Ensemble, the Munoz/Ilusorio Duo and composer Johnterryl Plumeri.
Concert Report
Road Trip: The Toledo Symphony with Alain Trudel (March 5)
by Daniel Hathaway
As part of our continuing series of road trips to orchestra concerts within two hours' driving time of Cleveland, we hopped over to Toledo on Friday evening, March 5, to hear Canadian guest conductor Alain Trudel in the first of two concerts with the 70-some piece Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the local saxophone quartet known as Sax 4th Avenue. The program, titled "Scheherazade and Sax Appeal" (no doubt cooked up by the marketing department), included Prokoviev's 'Symphony No. 1 (Classical)', Phillip Glass' 'Concerto for Saxophone Quartet' and Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade'.Although the many activities of the Toledo Symphony take the orchestra to several venues, its home base is The Peristyle, a 1,700 seat indoor Graeco-Roman amphitheater located in the left wing of the Toledo Art Museum, which is itself an elegant, low-profiled, white marble Greek revival building about a mile from downtown. Not signposted, the Peristyle is a bit reticent about revealing its location -- we figured it out by following other concertgoers. (As you approach the steps, you surprisingly encounter an Art Nouveau Paris Metro station entrance which will take you nowhere).
Alain Trudel, who began his career as a professional trombonist, is principal conductor of the National Broadcast Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Victoria Symphony and conductor of the Laval Symphony. His appearance with the TSO marked his US debut.
Tonight's concert began with the Prokofiev 'Classical' Symphony, an essay in creating a modern piece in the style of Haydn, and, uncharacteristically for Prokovief, composed away from the piano. With four movements lasting a total of sixteen minutes, it's definitely a miniature even by Haydn's standards. Trudel, conducting with expansive rather than surgically precise gestures, set leisurely tempos, some of which became even slower in the course of a movement, an approach which sapped the piece of some of its wit and sparkle.
The Peristyle seems acoustically vast because of its width, and we had already wondered as we heard the orchestra warming up what the acoustics would be like in performance. The stage (backed by classical columns like the rest of the hall) is essentially a box with panels forming an acoustical shell at the top. Throughout the Prokofiev as well as the rest of the evening, we thought the orchestra sounded a bit distant, and as the concert went on, more and more concentration was required from the listener to focus in on what was happening.
Phillip Glass wrote his concerto for the Sigurd Rascher Quartet in the mid 1990's. The unattributed program notes comforted any potential listeners who were averse to the minimalist style Glass adopted in the mid to late 1960's with the promise that this would be a work of relaxed lyricism. Promise kept. Although repetitive minimalist elements were always present, this is a quite beautiful piece throughout all of its four contrasting movements. The third was, in fact, hauntingly lovely with expressive tenor sax, then clarinet solos over repeated chords and a magical moment when a baritone sax solo was doubled by celesta. Alain Trudel held everything together nicely; his precise gestures and mastery of shifting meters kept everything neat and tidy in the fast movements. Sax 4th Avenue (Stanley George on soprano, Shannon Ford on alto, Kevin Heidbreder on tenor and Jason Yost on baritone), most of whom hold down day jobs as band directors and music teachers, were phenomenal. They played with beautiful, nuanced tone and fine intonation. On their second callback to the stage, they offered an encore: King Crimson's 'Frame by Frame'.
After intermission, we heard Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade', a work -- according to the program notes -- that was soundly denounced by the Boston press in 1897 as "confused" and "cacaphonous". While we don't agree with that, we have always thought that shaving off a third of its 40-some minutes would be A Good Thing. But like the Boston audiences -- to continue that story -- the Toledo crowd enormously enjoyed the piece, clapping between its four movements and giving Rimsky the second standing ovation of the evening (Mr. Glass won the first). Mr. Trudel led a clean and well paced -- if largely uneventful reading of the fairy tales. Concertmaster Kirk Toth was the eloquent soloist and incidental solos were sensitively played by a number of the TSO musicians.
The Toledo Symphony is obviously a talented ensemble and one well supported by its community, into which it extends many artistic tendrils. Stefan Sanderling is principal conductor, and besides the Peristyle series, the orchestra produces an annual Bruckner concert in the stunning ambiance of Rosary Cathedral. Admirably, the TSO seems to have taken the decision to market itself as an ensemble rather than to attract an audience through high profile soloists. Probably a thousand patrons heard Friday's concert and the crowd ran the gamut of ages. Its more than 120 page program book efficiently covered eight concert sets from January though March and is strong on advertising content (helpful, too -- one full page ad suggested "call during intermission and your table will be waiting" and thus directed us to a fine restaurant). The possibility of purchasing a glass of wine during intermission would have been lovely, but cookies, coffee & juice can be enjoyed at modest prices.
We encourage Clevelanders to visit the TSO's website and plan a trip to hear this fine orchestra. At the same time, you can take in the excellent collection at the Art Museum (a Whistler exhibit is up through May 9) and visit the four-year old Glass Pavillion across the street to admire more than 5,000 artworks in glass from antiquity up to today. If you go on Friday, you can visit the Museum before a concert (otherwise, the collections close at 4 pm).
Concert Report
Canton Symphony in "Love Speaks" (March 7)
Canton Symphony in "Love Speaks" (March 7)
by Tom Wachunas
One need not have read the program notes for the March 7 Canton Symphony Orchestra concert to sense from the opening moments of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise that romance was solidly in the house. The theme for the afternoon concert was billed as “Love Speaks.” And that it did, in all its sumptuous color, intricate textures, and alluring faces, triumphant as well as tragic.The orchestra’s lush voicing of Rachmaninoff’s gentle, slow lyricism, subtly tinged with a nostalgic aching, was as if giving form to a blooming rose. The finessed unity of depth and sonority of this orchestra’s string section is a consistently thrilling thing to behold, and certainly in full force throughout this concert. As he has done on so many past occasions, CSO Concertmaster Nathan Olson performed the solo violin passages in this work with riveting purity both authoritative and sweet. He again brought his formidable emotive sensibilities to the next work on the program, Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs.
When he encountered the love sonnets of Pablo Neruda, American composer Peter Lieberson immediately connected to their sensual emotionality and knew he had to set some of them (five in all) to music for his wife, the great mezzo soprano, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. It is a remarkable irony of fate that the poems’ allusions to love as a passionate, unfolding journey would take on bittersweet relevance in light of Lorraine’s long battle with cancer, which she ultimately lost in 2006. The work is imbued, then, with a resonant heroism, grounded in the deep, unfaltering love between a man and a woman.
And so it is that when acclaimed mezzo soprano Kelley O’Connor came to the stage, the house lights brightened. She is a striking presence, to be sure. Here, she gazed out into the hall throughout her performance in such a way as to make you feel as if she were singing directly to and for you. A lover singing to her beloved. And the singing! O’Connor embodied all of the work’s heroic depth - its tender, urgent proclamations of timeless hope and dreaming – with an astonishingly rich, throaty voice that can soften even the hardest of hearts.
The music for this work is an intriguing synthesis of interwoven moods and melody lines that seem like metaphors for a vast, even cosmic tapestry depicting day and night, expansive landscapes, longing and discovery. The orchestra embraced the ebbs and flows of the work’s sensuality - and spirituality – with marvelous clarity and balance.
That same orchestral clarity and balance was delightfully present in the performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll – a sublime, enthralling love song that the composer presented to his wife on the morning of her 33d birthday. Here the orchestra effectively captured all of the work’s color and sense of approaching day and the promise it holds.
The final work on the program -- Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy -- is certainly not so optimistic in outlook. It is, however, as Kenneth C. Viant observed in his program notes, “…a work whose rhapsodic lyricism and dramatic emotionalism have made it one of the most enduring pieces in the symphonic repertory.”
What this orchestra did with the work should not be called a great performance. That would be too easy an assessment. This was an orchestral phenomenon of the highest order. In the past I have often marveled at the ephemeral chemistry between Maestro Zimmerman and his accomplished musicians. He doesn’t merely conduct the music, and they don’t merely play it. They breathe it as an organic unit. It is a chemistry that generally evades adequate definition or description. You simply know it when you see and feel it. And here all the ingredients were brought to optimal temperature until they boiled over with the last volcanic timpani roll and cymbal crashes, pouring like a wail for the ages into the final, soul-searing chord.
I cannot recall seeing an audience so immediately, in unison, on its feet. Some looked quite astonished at how they got there. A paroxysm of praise, no doubt. When it was over, while some may have walked out of Umstattd Hall, I seem to recall most of us floating back to our cars.
