Cleveland Chamber Symphony 1/21/07
Yesterday's concert began with a performance of Ives' 3rd.
The first movement was played more slowly than one generally hears it, with a loving attention to details of phrasing, and with the 2nd movement played correspondingly quicker (and with a bit of ununanimity from the violins). My appreciation was damaged by the young Oriental man in the 5th row center, seat 012, whose cell phone went off in the 1st movement, and who was not man enough to apologize to me during the intermission. It's easy for people to assume that this is a "conservative" work, because it has tunes and is general euphonious. But its approach to voice-leading and its subversion of symphonic norms made it seem quite fresh, fresher in many ways than the other works on the program. The audience reaction was less than the performance deserved, and conductor Steven Smith spoke afterwards to justify his programming decision, which really needed no justification. I personally approve of programming older, more ignored 20th c works (I vote for Rubbra 10th and the Koechlin Partita myself), and note that Ed London used to include Haydn symphonies!
Cleveland native David Taddie's Amazonia II for piano, percussion, harp and orchestra followed, in the able hands of Mark George, Andy Pongracz, and Jocelyn Chang, respectively. The newest work on the program, it was dated 2007; Andy told me that he'd been emailed the part the preceeding Saturday (not at all obvious from the polished performance.) In two movements, the piece begins with rapid material in asymmetrical rhtyhms, with many repeated notes, followed later in the movement by lush string polychords. The second movement begins with a stark string line with is eventually reconciled to the 1st movement material. It was a finely-crafted and emotionally-satisfying work, although in many ways it was the most conservative work on the program.
After the intermission, we had the premiere of fellow University of Michigan alumnus Gerald Plain's Concerto for Recorder and Chamber Orchestra from 2002, dedicated to his late wife (who had introduced him to the recorder) and to English recorderist Piers Adams (who had edited the recorder part). It was ably played by Eva Legene of the Indiana University faculty. The soloist alternates between sopranino, soprano and tenor recorders, and in the first and last case at least, she performed on period (i.e., plastic) instruments. The orchestra was the usual CCS complement of strings (6-5-3-3-2) plus reeds, a percussionist and a sampled harpsichord, which was just a little bit in-your-face. The first movement was for 'nino, with constant 16th-note motion on a 40-note ostinato. There were balance problems with the soloist; I would never have thought that possible with a 'nino, but there was quite a bit of bottom octave writing, and even though the orchestra was not playing particularly loudly (and Smith had his left palm down through much of the work) the number of attack points in the strings made them seem louder.The second movement, for tenor, dwelt quite a bit on alternations between the bottom D and Eb. The third began on tenor and ended on soprano. This was also in a perpetual motion style but broken up with descending glissandi (as a teen, Plain was an avid pedal steel guitar player). There were a number of accompanied (and a few unaccompanied) cadenzas in the work; one of the most memorable, in the first movement, was with string bass and 2 solo violins playing harmonics. Aside from the glissandi, there were no extended techniques used. On the whole, I found the rhythmic and melodic language somewhat impoverished, with a lack of really striking ideas. It was a pleasant enough listen and got a good audience response to both solist and composer, but I doubt that it will become a repertoire item.
The last work on the program was Tan Dun's Concerto for Orchestra: Yi (2002). I must confess to not knowing Tan Dun's music well, considering the number of performances and recordings there are. I've considered it "not my thing" when I've heard it casually. This work held my attention though. The composer I was most reminded of, in the way the musical flow was structured, was Varese, but with Varese's autocthonic melodies rising from Asia instead of Europe. And like Vases, the work held together without one quite being able to figure out how.
Comments
Posted by: Barb Sabathil
Posted on: June 25, 2008 08:29 PM
Interesting and thorough review. I was surprised to hear that the orchestra used a sampled harpsichord. Have you noticed whether this is a trend amongst modern orchestras, or the exception rather than the rule?
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: June 26, 2008 10:04 AM
I wouldn't call it a trend. CCC has always used a sampled celesta. That's a bit more understandable, esp. with the orchestra being as broke as it is. But there are enough harpsichords in Cleveland that you'd think they could have found one to borrow. Of course, I don't know if the part is for harpsichord or for "harpsichord". Finding authentic instruments for the Carter Double is getting to be a real challenge.