slonimsky, spring, spain and shostakovich

It’s kind of a shame that Sunday’s concert, featuring Yo-Yo Ma, is sold out.  Not just because Ma is an artist of the highest caliber (which he is), but because the rest of the program really deserves to be a subscription concert of its own.

John Adams’ caffeinated curtain raiser Slonimsky’s Earbox, is the kind of kinetic orchestral showpiece that really demonstrates what a virtuoso ensemble the Oregon Symphony has become over the last decade or so.  It grooves in a uniquely American way, combining aspects of “popular” music and bits of Stravinsky and Adams’ own unique takes on the malleability of rhythm and timbre – it’s like sitting at a mixing board in a recording studio and twisting knobs and pushing and pulling sliders, bending the tempos and registers and volume of all the different sections of the orchestra at once.  It’s quite a ride.  Click here to read John Adams’ own notes about the piece – including the fact that it was co-commissioned by the Oregon Symphony and given its American premiere here in Portland, Oregon in 1996.

Aaron Copland’s Suite from Appalachian Spring is one of those pieces that you swear you’ve heard before, and you have: in countless Hollywood movies where a distinctly American feel is required.  It’s a miracle of a piece, and every time I perform it, I’m amazed at the world that Copland evokes in his rhythms, sounds, and melodies – including the famous Shaker hymn Simple Gifts, which forms the emotional center of the piece.  Carlos’ interpretation of this piece is more contemplative than is the norm, and I must say that it’s growing on me.  The expansiveness, the allowing of chords of aching beauty to really live in that margin between agony and ecstasy, makes the nostalgia and melancholy come to the fore.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea for this piece, but I’m getting partial to it myself.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto is a galvanizing masterpiece for the cello and orchestra, bringing all of Shosty’s sardonic wit, depths of the terror of living under Soviet rule, and the frenzy of tension and release to the breaking point, all in a single, lone stringed instrument.  At the hands of Yo-Yo Ma, it should be an unforgettable experience.  An interesting note: David Sokolofsky, a member of the OSO cello section, grew up in Philadelphia, and was present at the American premiere of the First Cello Concerto, and got to see, in person, Mstislav Rostropovich, Eugene Ormandy, and Dmitri Shostakovich all on stage at the Academy of Music.  He says it’s one of his most treasured memories, and I can only shake my head in amazement at what that must have been like!

Finally, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnole is a swaggering, dancing, strutting piece of machismo that is so boldly orchestrated and vivid in its evocations of Spanish dance and attitudes.  It features some spectacular solo turns by many of the orchestral principals – including concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, principal flute Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, principal clarinet Yoshinori Nakao, and several more. It will be a spectacular end to the concert.