Stewart Goodyear joins forces with the Daedalus Quartet at Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

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Daedalus Quartet
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Perelman Theater
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Philadelphia, PA
February 11, 2024

Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Op. 1 No. 3, Hob. III:3
Goodyear: Piano Quintet, Hommage a Beethoven
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

Sunday afternoon at the Perelman Theater saw the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society present the Daedalus Quartet. Their program began with an early entry of Haydn’s vast series of sixty-eight string quartets. Cast in five movements, the D major quartet from opus 1 is in some ways more akin structurally to the Baroque suite with its alternating tempos than the form the composer would later crystallize. The opening Adagio was given with transparency and balance. A stylish triple meter marked the pair of minuets. The central and final movements bore a Presto tempo indication; rapid, buoyant energy made them spirited if brief affairs.

Stewart Goodyear and Daedalus Quartet at the Perelman Theater

String quartet subsequently blossomed to piano quintet with the addition of Stewart Goodyear, donning the dual mantle of pianist-composer. In its Philadelphia premiere, Goodyear’s own Piano Quintet filled the balance of the first half. Subtitled Hommage a Beethoven, the work is filled with a panoply of allusions to the earlier composer. The opening Passacaglia was built around a theme from the Ninth Symphony. Tremolos punctuated the bass line on which the variations were built, and matters were skillfully textured such that the bold piano didn’t outsize the string players.

Mercurial fragments coalesced in the Scherzo, alluding to the Bagatelle, Op. 126 No. 4. A central Air was cast for strings alone – something of a lamentation, it was rather un-Beethovenian in its long-bowed melody, but looked back to the composer’s Baroque inspirations. This was followed by a Minuet, coloristic and chromatic, an almost impressionistic deconstruction of the venerable dance form. A wide-ranging and kinetic Toccata closed the work. Eclectic in inspiration, I caught nods to the Moonlight and Appassionata sonatas among others, varied by some unusual timbres inclusive of tapping the cello body, col legno strings, and plucking the piano.

One of the exemplary works in the form closed the recital, namely Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34. A broad theme grew in impassioned urgency, with the ensemble yielding a quasi-orchestral sonority. Almost Schubertian in its spaciousness, the movement pointed towards a forceful coda. All was suddenly at peace in the slow movement, with the richly lyrical piano decorated by the strings.

The Scherzo saw hypnotically repeated figures building to searing intensity, contrasted by its songful trio. Brahms extensively makes use of syncopation here, and my thoughts turned to the recently-departed Peter Schickele: in a memorable episode of his inimitable radio program Schickele Mix, he colorfully illustrated how this movement can be seen as a precursor to American ragtime. Soul-searching introductory material opened the finale. Its primary theme first surfaced sumptuously in the cello, proceeding sprightly but lyrical at heart, and the bold, uncompromising close evidenced Goodyear and the Daedalus as polished collaborators.

Unfamiliar Dawson symphony highlights Columbus Symphony’s eclectic program

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Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Steven Banks, alto saxophone
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
February 4, 2024

Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919)
Tomasi: Concerto for Alto Saxophone
Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

Last weekend saw the Columbus Symphony opening their program with an orchestral favorite before courageously veering firmly into unfamiliar territory. Stravinsky’s Firebird, presented in its most commonly heard 1919 suite, made for a glittering opening. Ominous rumbling in the low strings set the mood and built tension. A warm and gracious theme of folk origin marked the “Dance of the Princesses”, most prominently heard in the oboe. The vigor was substantially ramped up in the “Infernal Dance”, with thunderous punctuations from the bass drum, ultimately pointing to the resplendent finale. In his preconcert talk, Christopher Purdy noted that Stravinsky himself conducted the CSO on one occasion in 1968.

Steven Banks, photo credit steven-banks.com

Henri Tomasi’s 1949 Concerto for Alto Saxophone brought forth an excellent soloist in Steven Banks. Its misty opening in the orchestra gave way to the lyrical tone of the sax, making the case that this is an instrument that has a place in the concert hall as well as the jazz club. Banks impressed in his rapid fingerwork during the extended cadenza, and the timbre of his instrument offered striking contrast to the rest of the orchestra in this colorful midcentury score. The closing “Giration” again showcased the soloist’s limber flexibility, broadening to a clangorous coda. As an encore, Banks performed “The Lord’s Prayer”, a plaintive spiritual that further showcased the saxophone’s range and variety.

The major discovery of the program came in William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony. A substantial work, it puts Dawson in same pantheon as fellow Black composers Florence Price, William Grant Still, or Julia Perry – and served as a meaningful acknowledgment of Black History Month. Written in 1934, it was premiered to acclaim by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, only to soon recede into obscurity. Dawson would revise the work decades later, further fleshing out the percussion section after being inspired by a trip to the African continent. In very recent years, orchestras have begun to rediscover the score – and Philadelphia returned to it once again, producing a Grammy-nominated recording.

The three movements each take their titles from spirituals, and the work is an amalgamation of themes based on spirituals and those of Dawson’s own device. In this regard, he very much took cue from Dvořák who found great inspiration in the spiritual and encouraged American composers to embrace its authenticity. The Bond of Africa opened with a horn call, leading to a paragraph spacious and earthy, and in no hurry to arrive at the percussive coda. The work bore Dawson’s individual stamp and I was struck by the composer’s skillful orchestration and control of form – a shame he didn’t write more.

The crepuscular Hope in the Night was more introspective, and with a prominent passage for English horn (also a favorite instrument of Dvořák). It swelled to climaxes strained and pained – with a striking orchestration for bells. Glimmers of hope shone through in more playful material, but the bells resurfaced in a particularly gripping passage, underpinned by eerily pulsating percussion. I found the closing O, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star! to be the least convincing, but a warm brass chorale helped bring the work to a radiant close.

Classical symphonies bookend wunderkind violinist at ProMusica

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ProMusica Chamber Orchestra
David Danzmayr, conductor
Fiona Khuong-Huu, violin
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
January 28, 2024

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, Classical
Saint-Saëns: Introduction et Rondo capriccioso, Op. 28
Ravel: Tzigane
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major, Hob. I:104, London

Last weekend’s ProMusica performances introduced Columbus audiences to the remarkable – and remarkably young – violinist Fiona Khuong-Huu. Just 16 years old, she has already scored a New York Philharmonic debut and is currently a student in Juilliard’s pre-college division. Additionally, she is recipient of the Fomin Scholarship Fund from the Chicago-area North Shore Chamber Festival, an organization helmed by ProMusica’s creative partner Vadim Gluzman.

Fiona Khuong-Huu, David Danzmayr, and ProMusica, photos credit ProMusica

Khuong-Huu offered two 10-minute or so virtuoso showpieces, beginning with Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo capriccioso. A long-bowed melody marked the introductory material, and the violinist played with a rich tone and a maturity beyond her years. The Rondo was elegantly ornamented, with Khuong-Huu self-assured across the range of her instrument. In a particularly striking moment, the soloist played a series of rapid, wide-ranging arpeggios as the theme surfaced in the winds.

Ravel’s Tzigane opened with a monologue for violin alone, replete with modal inflections in invocation of Romani music. It’s a work that made substantial technical demands, surmounted by the soloist with seeming effortlessness. It’s also a piece filled with novel timbres, from the rapid pizzicato passages to a substantial part for harp (Jeanne Norton). Khuong-Huu certainly has a bright future ahead of her, and a career I look forward to watching.

The evening began and ended with “classical” symphonies of various flavors – Prokofiev’s First, which consciously sought to emulate and imitate his symphonic forbears, and Haydn’s last, a veritable archetype of the form. The fizzy opening of the Prokofiev was further buttressed by a buoyant contrasting theme, almost weightless, though vigor was amassed as much was made from efficient use of the chamber-sized orchestra. The delicate inner voices were intricately brought out in the Larghetto, and the piquant dissonances of the haughty gavotte were given a stylish reading. The effervescence of the whirlwind finale was a worthy rival to Haydn himself.

A broad-stroked introduction began Haydn’s London symphony at the other end of the program, pointing towards an essay in equal parts energetic and elegant, epitomizing classical symmetry and balance. The irregularly dispersed accents and pauses of the minuet were of charming effect, as was the finale, derived from a Croatian folk song that sounded almost indistinguishable from a bona fide Haydn theme.

The preceding Friday night saw a further installment of Naked Classics, hosted by the ebullient and informed Paul Rissmann. Parallels and contrasts between the Haydn and Prokofiev symphonies were illuminated, culminating in a performance of both works. Here, the two symphonies were intertwined, with a movement of Prokofiev alternating with a movement of Haydn, an approach which may have helped illustrate comparisons but ultimately made for a disjointed listen.

Paul Rissmann with David Danzmayr and ProMusica

Sarah Chang brings passionate, lyrical Bruch to the Springfield Symphony

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Springfield Symphony Orchestra
Peter Stafford Wilson, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
Kuss Auditorium
Clark State Performing Arts Center
Springfield, OH
January 27, 2024

Martinů: Overture for Orchestra, H345
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D417, Tragic

Saturday evening’s Springfield Symphony performance was highlighted by a concerto appearance from star violinist Sarah Chang. Before Chang took to the stage, the SSO offered a rather less-familiar score in Bohuslav Martinů’s Overture for Orchestra. An ebullient and effective opener, its festive nature was conceived in celebration of the Mannes College of Music where the composer had taught some years prior. Martinů favored chamber-like subsets of the full orchestra, invoking the Baroque concerto grosso. Concertmaster Sujean Kim offered some fine solo passages, and a serene central section contrasted the overture’s outward ebullience.

Peter Stafford Wilson, Sarah Chang, and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra

Chang came to Springfield armed with Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a work which she notably recorded with the great Kurt Masur. She opened with a melodic line articulate and emotive, and one was taken by the supreme purity of her tone, utterly controlled. A long-breathed melody marked the central slow movement, richly resonant and almost without break for the soloist, save for a swelling orchestral interlude; here and elsewhere the SSO generally supported their distinguished colleague with fine accompaniment.

The jocular acrobatics of the finale were exciting to watch but never just for show, and with the music being all but second-nature to Chang, it flowed organically from her bow. In a fascinating tidbit, music director Peter Stafford Wilson mentioned that Isaac Stern once played this same concerto with the SSO – and likely on the very same instrument heard Saturday, now in Chang’s possession.

The program concluded with Schubert’s Fourth Symphony. Its thunderous opening gave way to a measured introduction, and movement’s main theme was given with crisp articulation – though one wanted perhaps a bit more tension and cleaner intonation. The Andante served as a lyrical moment of repose, elegantly played, before the sprightly minuet and energetic finale – ending, like Beethoven’s C minor symphony before him, triumphantly in the major.

Toledo Symphony offers hearty program of Eastern European concertos

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Toledo Symphony Orchestra
Alain Trudel, conductor
Olga Kern, piano
Peristyle Theater
Toledo, OH
January 20, 2024

Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Encore:
Prokofiev: Etude in C minor, Op. 2 No. 4

On a bitter cold and snowy January weekend, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra presented a program that did much to warm and invigorate. Two works were featured, both from the heart of Eastern Europe, and both titled concerto – but of sharply contrasting approach.

Olga Kern, Alain Trudel, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra

Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra is a landmark of mid-20th century orchestral music – a real shame it doesn’t find its way onto concert programs more often. Music director Alain Trudel keenly guided the opening Intrada as a strident melody took shape over pulsating timpani. Moments of brassy bombast were aplenty, and the scoring further included a substantial part for piano (Valrie Kantorski). As per its title, virtually all instruments were granted a moment in the spotlight, including those such as the English horn that are more often relegated to the background.

The central movement, titled Capriccio notturno ed Arioso, was rather Mendelssohnian in its fleet, rapid textures, drifting away in almost imperceptible evanescence. An end-weighted architecture, the closing movement is longer than the first two combined. The venerable passacaglia form opened, with pizzicato in the double basses outlining a theme which the composer would ingeniously transform. A brilliantly orchestrated conception, textures ranged from a thin thread to the densely cataclysmic. A concerto for orchestra doesn’t necessarily imply equality amongst all instruments, however, and here the brass were certainly the most prominent, especially in the stirring chorale, or the punchy, blazing coda.

Rachmaninoff’s evergreen Piano Concerto No. 2 filled the balance of the program, and brought forth pianist Olga Kern (who mentioned during the preconcert conversation that she came to Toledo on the heels of her performances in Cape Town, South Africa!). The eight opening chords from the soloist tolled like bells, sculpted with a steadily building crescendo. The orchestra responded with Rachmaninoff’s quintessentially rich melodies, decorated by Kern’s flowing accompaniment. At times I found her playing a bit heavy-handed, but she projected well over the orchestra with resonant tone. A blistering march made for an exciting climax to the movement, while a lambent horn call was an especially touching moment.

Kern was perhaps at her finest in the central Adagio sostenuto, in deft conversation with the winds, coaxing a velvety tone out of the mighty Steinway. The finale saw Kern’s pianism playful if fitful, and the movement’s indelible main theme appeared like an old friend, sinuously at first, growing increasingly lyrical to build to the work’s triumphant conclusion. An enthusiastic reception brought Kern back for an encore: a Prokofiev etude taken at such a manic tempo as to close the evening with edge-of-your seat excitement.

Preconcert conversation with Trudel and Kern, moderated by TSO violinist Merwin Siu

Wesler-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra riveting in iconoclastic symphonies of Prokofiev and Webern

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Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Mandel Concert Hall
Severance Music Center
Cleveland, OH
January 18, 2024

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40
Webern: Symphony, Op. 21
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100

Franz Welser-Möst is back in Cleveland to start the year off with two weeks of subscription concerts before taking the orchestra on tour to Carnegie Hall and Miami. The conductor seemed in robust form, his first local appearance since undergoing cancer treatment, as well as official confirmation that he will be stepping down as music director in 2027, following a remarkable quarter century in that capacity.

Welser-Möst conducts Prokofiev, photo credit Roger Mastroianni

Thursday’s program offered three works all bearing the title “symphony” and composed within the span of two decades, but each vastly different conceptions of the form. The evening was bookended by Prokofiev, beginning with the rarely-heard Second Symphony. The conductor has turned ample attention to Prokofiev in recent seasons, including traversals of the lesser-known symphonies, albeit with mixed results when the work is more curiosity than masterpiece – though I found the Second to be much more convincing than the Third or Fourth. It’s also worth nothing that the Second was last intended to be performed in March 2020, only to be the first of months of Covid cancellations.

The work opened blistering and uncompromising, in mechanistic fury – in the composer’s own words, music of “iron and steel.” A product of the 1920s, it embraced a celebration of industry that also gave inspiration to Varèse, Antheil, and Honegger, as well as Prokofiev’s own Scythian Suite. Rhythmic pulsating continued unabated with the industriousness of an assembly line, and Welser-Möst managed to find clarity amongst the busy textures. The work’s unusual structure has been compared to that of Beethoven’s final piano sonata: a stormy sonata-form opening movement, followed by an expansive set of variations. A flowing oboe melody (Frank Rosenwein) carved out the theme, a somber turn inward. Animated transformations of the theme followed, while the fourth variation served as the work’s only extended slow passage. The manic and frenetic came back in due course, and strikingly, the theme returned at the end in its unadulterated form, with hauntingly orchestrated final chords shrouded in mystery.

Anton Webern’s sole symphony follows a similar two movement form, but couldn’t be more different. The orchestra was reduced to modest, classically-sized proportions, and barren, almost emaciated textures. Conductor and orchestra gave the coloristic score a nuanced, exacting reading, with the composer’s distinctive Klangfarbenmelodie technique yielding a protean ebb and flow as gestures were passed throughout the ensemble.

Prokofiev’s masterpiece in the form, the Fifth, closed the program (which like the Second, has also been recently recorded by these forces). The orchestra again swelled to the brim of the stage, and articulated a broad opening statement in which one felt the voice of a man with newfound energy and confidence. Welser-Möst emphasized the grand sweep of the movement, pointing towards a triumphant, blazing finale. The Allegro marcato had mechanistic echoes of the earlier symphony, highlighted by the shrill clarinet of Afendi Yusuf as well as prominent piano. With its militant snares, this is to my ears the closest Prokofiev came to sounding like his Soviet compatriot Shostakovich.

The brooding triple meter of the Adagio wouldn’t have sounded out of place in Romeo and Juliet which dates from a similar time, while the angular main melody of the finale had a distinctly Soviet feel. Welser-Möst was keen not to hit the listeners all at once by way of a slow, carefully-judged buildup in potency, leading to the pile-driving intensity of the work’s final statement. This weekend’s Carnegie Hall audiences certainly have an invigorating listen in store.

Carpe Diem joins forces with guest violist

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Carpe Diem String Quartet
Jacob Shack, viola
First Unitarian Universalist Church
Columbus, OH
December 16, 2023

Tucker: Ravenous
Bunch: String Circle
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111

Carpe Diem String Quartet began their December program in enterprising fashion with two contemporary works – including a world premiere. The premiere was a product of their 15 for 15 initiative, in which they have commissioned fifteen works to honor their fifteenth anniversary. Composer Akshaya Avril Tucker was on hand to introduce her piece entitled Ravenous, inviting the audience to picture a place without life – and then to imagine its return to life in ravenous regrowth. The piece followed the trajectory suggested by those remarks, beginning desolate, almost disembodied, steadily growing in vigor and fervor.

Guest violist Jacob Shack – who currently serves as associate principal of the Baltimore Symphony – was introduced for the next two selections. Kenji Bunch – also a violist – is a composer whose folk and populist influences abound, readily apparent in the 2005 work String Circle. Described as something of a chamber music “jam session”, the opening Lowdown began gently but not without rhythmic thrust. Syncopations decorated Shuffle Step, while the languorous central Ballad seemed to suggest Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Pointillist pizzicato made Porch Picking a fun listen, and the appropriately titled Overdrive closed the piece in exciting fashion.

Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 was almost symphonic in heft – it was quite striking how the addition of just a single viola buttressed the quartet. Tremolos underpinned a warm cello melody, and the quintet did much to bring out the richness of the scoring, cutting into the heart of the spacious opening movement. The Adagio was beautifully resonant, with elegant ornamentations atop a stately chordal procession. Brahms’ individual stamp wandered through the penultimate movement, a downtempo affair in lieu of the more traditional scherzo; a further favorite device of the composer came in the Hungarian inflections of the vigorous finale. Shack gelled with Carpe Diem like an old friend, and the diversion into the string quintet literature was most welcome.

Seasonally appropriate, the evening concluded with a generous helping of ten or so holiday selections in skillfully crafted arrangements for quartet.

Inkinen makes Cleveland Orchestra debut in hearty Eastern European program

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Cleveland Orchestra
Pietari Inkinen, conductor
Augstin Hadelich, violin
Mandel Concert Hall
Severance Music Center
Cleveland, OH
November 24, 2023

Dvořák: Othello Overture, Op. 93
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
 Encore:
 Forrester: Wild Fiddler’s Rag
Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88

The Thanksgiving weekend saw the Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a program of works all composed within just over a decade and from the heart of Eastern Europe. Dvořák’s Othello Overture opened, conceived as the final entry of a trilogy of related overtures. Written just four years after Verdi’s landmark opera on the same subject, Dvořák likely drew inspiration from the Italian he greatly admired, though his overture tended to suggest the essence of the Shakespearean source material rather than spell out a specific narrative.

Pietari Inkinen, photo credit pietariinkinen.com

Slow and somber introductory material built to music of great drama. It seemed that Inkinen could have benefited from some additional rehearsal time with a handful of uncoordinated entrances, but an effective performance was managed nonetheless. The slow material returned at the end, with stentorian brass strikingly invoking the slumber motif from Wagner’s Die Walküre as something of a final prayer before the unequivocally tragic end. So much of the time Dvořák is programmed we hear one of the last few symphonies (or the cello concerto), but this overture was a welcome discovery, and should certainly encourage listens to look at Dvořák’s orchestral corpus beyond the warhorses.

The balance of the program, however, was dedicated to warhorses – and in no way a detriment! Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Violin Concerto called upon soloist Augustin Hadelich. A gentle dip set things in motion in this most graceful of openings, with Hadelich’s solo line articulate, keenly phrased, and above all, richly lyrical. Nimble and nuanced, he displayed some especially impressive fingerwork in the cadenza. A choir of winds opened the central Canzonetta, and the songful, mournful violin purveyed a delicate cantilena. The finale is such joyous affair for someone who lived such a tragic life as its composer, and Hadelich’s sprightly virtuosity closed the work in the highest spirits. He returned for a well-deserved encore, his own arrangement of Howdy Forrester’s Wild Fiddler’s Rag – a piece of great fun with its bluesy inflections.

Franz Welser-Möst set the bar high for Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony two seasons ago; while Inkinen didn’t quite reach that height, it was here he made the strongest impression – and opted to conduct this score from memory. The deeply lyrical opening gesture gave way in due course to material of an inimitable Bohemian charm, aided by fine solo passages from the principal winds. Still, greater dynamic contrast would have helped, with conductor leaning a bit too heavily in the orchestra’s upper end of the range.

A bucolic slow movement built to a resonant climax, and the lovely Allegretto grazioso was flowing and deftly shaped, though a tad rushed for my taste. The call to arms in the trumpet initiated the energetic and often boisterous finale, nearly overflowing with gracious material that never strayed far from the composer’s Czech origins. On a final note, how gratifying it was to see nearly every seat of Severance Hall filled, and with such a warm, enthusiastic audience.

Augustin Hadelich, photo credit Suxiao Yang

Columbus Symphony and Chorus riveting in Frank’s Conquest Requiem

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Rossen Milanov, conductor
Columbus Symphony Orchestra

Jessica Rivera, soprano
Andrew Garland, baritone
Stephen Caracciolo, chorus director
Columbus Symphony Chorus

Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
November 17, 2023

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, Pastoral
Frank: Conquest Requiem

Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Columbus Symphony offered a substantial program of two highly contrasting works, spaced apart by two centuries: Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and a recent work of Gabriela Lena Frank, the latter of which engaged the chorus and a pair of vocal soloists.

Music director Rossen Milanov opened the Pastoral at a relaxed tempo, drawing reserves of resonant sound out of the CSO. A bucolic scene was painted by the slow movement with its graceful, gentle melody inflected by elegant ornamentations. Dialogue between the winds and strings was well-executed, as was the pictorial series of bird calls. A folksy and charming movement followed, quite literally the calm before the storm which offered dark and tumultuous contrast, while the finale calmed matters in its hymn-like paean, some foibles in the horns notwithstanding.

Jessica Rivera, photo credit Tina Gutierrez

An ambitious programming choice occupied the reminder of the program, namely Gabriela Lena Frank’s 2017 Conquest Requiem. Written on commission from the Houston Symphony, it’s a work that has subsequently only been heard in Nashville and Boston ahead of last weekend’s Columbus premiere. The work is concerned with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, and thus functions as a requiem for lost culture. With the broad framework of the Latin requiem mass informing the underlying structure, parts for the vocal soloists were variously in Nahuatl and Spanish – it was regrettable the program books didn’t include the full text by librettist Nilo Cruz, which may be viewed here. The clash of cultures is perhaps a natural subject for Frank, mirroring her own diverse background, inclusive of Chinese, Jewish, Eastern European, Peruvian, Spanish, and Quechua ancestry.

Soprano Jessica Rivera embodied the role of Malinche, an enslaved Nahua woman and mistress of Cortés, with whom she bore a son Martín, sung by baritone Andrew Garland. Both soloists were also engaged for the Houston premiere, and it was clear by the urgency and persuasion of their performances that this is a work they emphatically believe in. A descending gesture opened, with the solemn chorus a present force nearly from the onset, offering the Latin requiem text as a layer of the work’s rich tapestry. Interwoven with the requiem text were the soloists’ exclamations, beginning with Malinche who sang initially in Spanish. Rivera was both impassioned and conflicted, capturing the straddling of cultures.

Frank made effective use of a large orchestra – with some particularly striking scoring for percussion – in a musical language that was approachable without being derivative, especially evident in the strident and rousing Judex ergo or the chilling setting of the Dies irae that followed, wherein Garland introduced Martín with conviction. Material for strings and harp was an orchestral highlight, a calming passage before Rivera sang of Malinche’s inner turmoil in an agonizing climax. A duet saw the soloists blend their voices harmoniously, with the thought-provoking work landing on a plaintive if inconclusive Amen.

ProMusica celebrates Schubert – and the steel pan

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ProMusica Chamber Orchestra
David Danzmayr, conductor
Andy Akiho, steel pan
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
November 11, 2023

Akiho: Beneath Lighted Coffers
 Encore:
 Akiho: Murasaki
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, D944, Great

Last weekend’s ProMusica performances offered a further installment in their admirable and illuminating Composer/Performer project, in which they shine light on that special breed of musicians who balance careers in both disciplines. Featured on the present program was composer and steel pannist Andy Akiho – who just the day before received no less than 3 Grammy nominations!

Andy Akiho and ProMusica, photos credit ProMusica

The work he offered ProMusica was a concerto for steel pan and orchestra entitled Beneath Lighted Coffers, written in 2015 on commission from the National Symphony Orchestra. The piece was inspired by time the composer spent in Rome, and in particular, the Pantheon with each of its five movements exploring a feature of the awe-inspiring edifice. Cascades in the pan alone started the opening “Portico” movement, and one was struck by Akiho’s thorough command of his instrument. Despite being essentially a foreign entity in the context of the Western classical orchestra, the pan naturally blended with the others under the composer’s skillful writing.

“Twenty-Eight” alluded to the Pantheon’s trapezoidal coffers, with strident, angular writing building these architectural elements in musical terms. Striking the edge of the pan, Akiho yielded a wide variety of timbre and color from the instrument. “Oculus” proceeded as meditative paean, and “Corelli” was a tribute to Baroque master buried at the Pantheon on an instrument the elder composer could scarcely have imagined. The composer’s adroitness at writing for orchestra was perhaps most convincing in the closing “Permanence” – a tuneful final statement abundant with virtuosic flourishes. Perhaps not the most profound score ProMusica has embraced, but a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

As an encore, Akiho offered his piece Murasaki, putting the capabilities and variety of the pan into focus – I was especially taken by the wide dynamic range. During the post-concert conversation, Akiho mentioned the inspiration came in the wee hours of the morning following a late shift at his father’s sushi restaurant – and a nod to reggae and Bob Marley.

Schubert’s final completed symphony was a weighty end to the evening. The broad stroked introduction evidenced the heft and proportion of the work (which Schumann would famously dub “heavenly length”), although here I prefer a bit more indulgent tempo and spacing than what Danzmayr offered. The first movement proper was given an energetic, vivacious workout, a spirited and life-affirming statement, and the trombone – novel in the symphony during Schubert’s time – provided a muscular backbone. The solo oboe of the slow movement proceeded as a gorgeous song without words, answered by a prayer-like passage in the strings.

The scherzo that followed was certainly no trifle, just as long as any of the other movements. It had a driving energy, and a recurrent tension between the fiery and the lyrical, contrasted by the loveliest of trios. Danzmayr and ProMusica romped through the vivacious finale with joy and abandon.