myths, monsters, and the new world

Last night the Oregon Symphony played a concert that is, in many ways, emblematic of the tenure of our current music director Carlos Kalmar. On display were canny programming, a stellar soloist, and a well-known chestnut with an interpretive twist.

The work that has most occupied the members of the orchestra in the weeks preceding the rehearsals for these concerts was the American composer Christopher Rouse’s Phaeton, a hell-bent-for-leather tone poem that concerns a son’s joyride in his father’s chariot that ends badly. It is a virtuoso showpiece for the orchestra that is (most likely more) enjoyable for the audience. There are so many interesting combinations of instruments that keep changing through the course of the 8 minute piece. My favorite of these is a brief section that has eerie muted trumpets that sounds, to my ear, like seething resentment incarnate. Add to that a screaming, bell-up English horn cry, and snarling brass and scurrying strings and woodwinds – it’s quite a ride. I said to a colleague after the concert that the orchestra personifies the young man who takes the chariot ride – it’s all you can do just to hang on!

Following the Rouse was an unjustly-neglected work for cello and orchestra – Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto. German cellist Alban Gerhardt was the soloist. Alban has become a favorite guest of the Oregon Symphony – he was appearing last night for the fourth time – and there is no question that he deserves that status. He’s a consummate performer of the highest order. There is no showiness to him. He just serves the music, and boy does he ever serve it! Having Alban come back again and again over the past eight seasons has been revelatory, as it has enable us to see his growth as an artist and performer. This year he returned as a fully mature artist, it seems. He has aged (more like a fine wine) since we last saw him, and his emotional commitment has further deepened and strengthened as well. The Prokofiev is such a test for the soloist – it is long and very physically taxing, and I would suspect emotionally taxing as well. Alban handled all of that with such a powerful inward focus and technical security – it was a masterclass in how to play the cello. Truly, he’s a monster performer.

Dvorak’s New World symphony is so well-known that, as a friend remarked to me recently, it enables you to enjoy the artistry of the performers rather than thinking about something that’s unfamiliar. I haven’t thought of it that way before, and it makes a lot of sense to me. In a way, it’s become part of Carlos’ signature – take a well-known piece and reveal aspects of it that audiences normally don’t get to hear. That takes work – many conductors would just say to the orchestra “yes, you know this piece very well, so let’s just run it and not spend too much time working”. Not so Carlos. It’s that kind of care that led to his breakout performance of Beethoven’s Fifth years back, and that continues to make working under him rewarding. It’s never business as usual. Some standouts for me from last night: Kyle Mustain’s sensitive and gorgeous English horn solos in the second movement; guest principal flutist Ryan Rice’s many beautiful solos; the entire brass section for their incredible soft playing at the opening of the slow movement, and their blazing sunrise chord that took everyone’s breath away; and timpanist Jonathan Greeney’s impeccable playing throughout.

If you haven’t bought your tickets for Sunday or Monday night – you owe it to yourself to get them now.

Tickets at Oregon Symphony website.
My program notes for this concert.