Columbus Symphony celebrates American music with standout guest conductor and soloist

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Columbus Symphony Orchestra
David Alan Miller, conductor
Aubree Oliverson, violin
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
February 3, 2023

Simon: This Land
Barber: Violin Concerto
 Encore:
 Puts: Arches
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World

Under guest conductor David Alan Miller, the Columbus Symphony presented an exuberant program of American music – the first half comprised of American composers, the latter the view of a foreigner looking in. As music director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Miller has developed a reputation for his commitment to contemporary music, and began the CSO program with a 2019 work of Carlos Simon. This Land is a musical depiction of the Statue of Liberty, and in particular, the Emma Lazarus poem at its base. It began introspectively with earthy harmonies, as a mediation on the poem and monument, and perhaps the less than promised realization of those ideals. A patchwork tapestry of various national anthems took shape, and the brief work closed as pensively as it began.

Aubree Oliverson, David Alan Miller, and the Columbus Symphony, photo credit Corinne Mares

Barber’s Violin Concerto put the considerable talents of soloist Aubree Oliverson in the spotlight. Eschewing introductory material, the music got right down to business with a rich lyricism from bar one, heightened by Oliverson’s warm, amber tone – self-assured, and articulately projecting over the orchestra. The movement was not without moments of tension, but never wandered far from its lyrical heart. A mournful oboe marked the central Andante, music clearly from the same pen as the Adagio for Strings, and the solo writing reached high into the range of Oliverson’s instrument. A breathless moto perpetuo – and the most harmonically adventurous of the movements – made for an exciting, energetic close. Certainly one of the finest concertos to come from this country, and on a personal note, I have fond memories of hearing the work here back in March 2010 – the very first time I attended the Columbus Symphony.

As a well-deserved encore, Oliverson selected another American composer in Kevin Puts, a name which has gotten much attention as of late following the premiere of his opera The Hours at the Met this past November. Arches proved to be a real treat for the audience: the violinist selected the final caprice wherein she drew out the titular arches without respite, increasingly wide and to mesmerizing effect – a jaw-droopingly virtuosic response to the Barber finale.

The evening closed with Dvořák’s “New World” symphony, the crowning product of his American sojourn. Some local concertgoers may have heard the symphony just the night before, concluding the Lviv National Philharmonic’s performance at Denison University. A passionate and brooding opening purveyed drama without bombast, while a stirring chorale began the Largo, setting the stage for the memorable English horn solo. In the scherzo, Dvořák found a way to remind us of his Czech origins in its flavor, seamlessly blended with the “American” material, and the lilting trio was especially delightful. The finale was dramatic to the finish of this polished performance, evidencing Miller’s fine chemistry with this orchestra.

Cavani Quartet makes strong impression in diverse program at Chamber Music Columbus

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Louise Toppin, soprano
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
January 28, 2023

Hu: The Clarity of Hope
Saint-Georges: String Quartet in C minor, Op. 1 No. 4
Lomax: A Prayer for Love
Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor

Encore:
Washington: Midnight Child

Chamber Music Columbus’ first program of the new year brought forth the Cleveland-based Cavani String Quartet in an afternoon of diverse string quartets by an equally diverse body of composers – none of whom fit the “dead white male” archetype all too prevalent in classical music, perhaps the vaunted string quartet even more so. The program opened with the next iteration of Ching-chu Hu’s fanfare for the organization’s 75th anniversary, styled here as The Clarity of Hope.

Cavani String Quartet, photo credit Robert Muller

In this guise, one was taken by the intimate warmth of the strings – rather different than the initial casting for brass quintet – and the scoring afforded each member of the quartet a moment in the spotlight. Cavani next turned to the work of the fascinating figure sometimes referred to as the “Black Mozart”: namely, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, born in Guadeloupe a decade before Mozart to a French father and Senegalese mother. The brief C minor quartet had an opening filled with longing of that tragic key (a tonality later favored by both Mozart and Beethoven for their most personal, profound creations), but an elegance at its core as encouraged by Cavani’s detailed reading. The closing Rondeau was a lively foil, in due course arriving at a bright C major.

The next of the 75th anniversary commissions turned toward one of Columbus’ own, the multi-faceted Mark Lomax II. A Prayer for Love intriguingly adds soprano voice to the quartet, singing the text of “A Prayer” by Claude McKay, Jamaican-born poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Searching, richly chromatic harmonies opened, and the work’s rhythmic complexities were astutely articulated by Cavani – surely Lomax’s background as as drummer encouraged his keen attention to rhythm. Louise Toppin’s lyrical soprano soared over the uncertain, often jagged accompaniment, at last giving way to peaceful resolution. In his interview with me, Lomax noted inspiration from Mahler’s blending of voice with orchestra, and the intimacy that creates in the context of a vast symphony. The taut communication here between soprano and strings conveyed, in a similar vein, an inward-looking affinity.

In recent years, a renewed attention has been given to the work of Florence Price – a major talent and essential voice of American music – and Cavani closed the printed program with her substantial String Quartet No. 2, dating from 1935. A wistfulness wandered throughout the opening Moderato, encouraged by the warm resonance of the strings: an eloquent statement, often bracing. Though in the European tradition, the work exuded a distinctly American flavor with stylistic echoes of Dvořák’s “American” quartet, though arguably more authentic.

The richly voiced Andante cantabile served as a calming spiritual, while the third movement Juba was of good-natured charm, brimming with syncopations that invoked ragtime and were played with abandon. The finale was a largely energetic affair, though still lyrical at its core, and led towards a blistering coda. As an encore, the quartet selected a work by Columbus native Charles Washington called Midnight Child, based upon the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”: freely incorporating jazz elements, it made for a delightful close to the afternoon.

Louise Toppin, photo credit umich.edu

Columbus Symphony delights in Viennese triumvirate

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Rossen Milanov, conductor
Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
January 20, 2023

Beethoven: Leonore Overture, Op. 72b
Mozart: Symphony No. 36 in C major, K425, Linz
Haydn: Symphony No. 100 in G major, Hob. I:100, Military

Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven are all but synonymous with the classical style, and this weekend’s Columbus Symphony program offered one sterling example from each of these Viennese masters (and although indelibly associated with the Austrian capital, none were in fact natives). Beethoven produced no less than four overtures for his sole opera Fidelio; the third, bearing the opera’s original title Leonore, opened the program. Ripe with operatic drama, it functions well as a standalone concert piece – and in the opera house, it has become a long-standing tradition to inject this version between scenes in the second act.

 Rossen Milanov and the Columbus Symphony, photo credit Corinne Mares

Somber beginnings gave rise to dramatic tension, thoughtfully paced by Milanov. Offstage trumpets sounded as a fanfare, suggesting narrative details of the source material, and the work ended in brassy splendor. Slow introductions were par for the course in Haydn’s symphonies, but rather rare for Mozart’s output. He employed such a device for the first time in the Linz symphony (No. 36), a technique he would only revisit twice (nos. 38 and 39). It made for a stately opening, setting up the effervescent main subject of the movement proper, given with airy clarity.

The Andante made for a gentle interlude, though punctuated by insistent brass and timpani. A most elegant of minuets followed, with Milanov’s baton bringing emphasis to the sprightly triple meter. The finale was lithe, lean, and joyous – one of Mozart’s most untroubled creations.

The introduction to Haydn’s Military symphony was given with clarity and careful articulation; the main theme was established with the unusual scoring for flute and oboe, and matters proceeded with a refined charm. Over two centuries later, the Allegretto which gives this symphony its moniker is still so striking and wonderfully surprising with its ceremonial percussion and brass fanfare. Such a movement is a hard act to follow, but the minuet was full of wit and charisma, with playing from the well-rehearsed CSO boasting the requisite transparency demanded by this repertoire. A vigorous return of the percussion made the finale an especially exciting affair.

Opera Project Columbus explores art song by Black composers in I, Too, Sing America

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Justin T. Swain, baritone
Dione Parker Bennett, soprano
Calvin Griffin, bass-baritone
Ed Bak, piano

Lincoln Theatre
Columbus, OH
January 15, 2023

Coleridge-Taylor: Songs of Sun and Shade – Nos. 2 and 4
Coleridge-Taylor: 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59 – No. 8: The Bamboula
Coleridge-Taylor: Six Sorrow Songs, Op. 57 – Nos. 2 and 5
Coleridge-Taylor: Five Fairy Ballads – Nos. 3 and 4
Graham Du Bois: Excerpts from Tom Tom

Opera Project Columbus first presented I, Too, Sing America in January 2021 – recorded in an empty hall in the midst of the covid pandemic. An initiative to shed light on the all too often forgotten or overlooked work of Black composers, a second installment was performed over the MLK Day weekend some two years later, this time to an enthusiastic live audience. Surveying art songs of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and excerpts of a long-lost opera by Shirley Graham DuBois, it was an afternoon ripe with musical discovery, and the program was peppered with informative historical commentary from Toni Shorter-Smith. Like the first installment, this too was filmed, with a broadcast slated for June.

Opera Project Columbus at the Lincoln Theatre, L-R: Dione Parker Bennett, Toni Shorter-Smith, Justin T. Swain, Calvin Griffin, Ed Bak

The first half was the devoted to the work of the considerably prolific Coleridge-Taylor, championed by baritone Justin T. Swain. Both vocalist and pianist (Ed Bak) were amplified – while presumably this will ensure fidelity on the recording, I found it to be rather overpowering in the 582-seat Lincoln Theatre. Two excerpts from Songs of Sun and Shade opened, displaying Swain’s sharp diction and powerful stage presence from the onset; the latter showed him more introspective. “The Bamboula” for solo piano followed, given by Bak with flair and virtuosity in its captivating interpolation of a folk melody – a quantity also used in Gottschalk’s work of the same title. A pair of examples from the Six Sorrow Songs were of fitting melancholy, and two of the Five Fairy Ballads closed the first half, noted for their broad expressive range – and the octave leaps of “Big Lady Moon” seemed to predict that gesture so recognizably used a few decades later in “Over the Rainbow.”

The wife of W.E.B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois was a major talent in her own right, an accomplished writer, playwright, activist, and, as this afternoon proved, composer. Her 1932 opera Tom Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro was given a single run of just two performances in Cleveland that collectively drew a crowd of over 25,000 (in a further Ohio connection, Graham Du Bois was educated at Oberlin College). Despite its initial success, the score was inexplicably lost, only to be rediscovered in recent years amongst her husband’s papers after they were acquired by Harvard in 2001 (the manuscript can be viewed online). The latter half of the present program was devoted to excerpts from the opera; if this preview was any indication, its an appealing and thought-provoking work of both cultural and musical significance – should Opera Project Columbus undertake a staged performance of the complete work, it would be a major and welcome achievement.

Calvin Griffin cut an imposing bass-baritone in “Listen to the distant Tom Toms,” and the piano accompaniment made strikingly innovative use of tone clusters, almost bringing to mind the music of Charles Ives. Swain delivered “Nkosi ke leh lah ee Africa” as a dirge-like interlude, while the dance material that followed was given with swagger, countered by the dulcet soprano of Dione Parker Bennett. Griffin brought “No! No! Not that! You are free!” to life as an expressive aria; Parker Bennet offered some particularly touching wistfulness in “No time.” “And now this ship will go to Africa” served as the final selection, putting Griffin in the spotlight again. Its meditative beginnings burgeoned to a thunderous conclusion.

Columbus Symphony opens new year with hearty Russian program

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Rossen Milanov, conductor
Bella Hristova, violin
Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
January 6, 2023

Rimsky-Korsakov: Suite from The Snow Maiden 
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54

The Columbus Symphony’s first program of 2023 surveyed three giants of the Russian repertoire – Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. A suite from Rimsky’s opera The Snow Maiden opened, an appealing selection of highlights, though its twelve minute duration barely scratches the surface of the expansive opera – a work which the composer considered his finest. The Introduction brimmed with a quintessentially Russian melancholy. “Dance of the Birds” unmistakably portrayed the subject material from this master of orchestration, and “Dance of the Buffoons” – the most recognizable excerpt – made for a rollicking close.

Bella Hristova, Rossen Milanov, and the Columbus Symphony, photo credit Corinne Mares

Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto brought forth music director Rossen Milanov’s Bulgarian compatriot Bella Hristova – who was graciously on hand for a pre-concert interview with the conductor. Dreamy, meditative material opened, with a beguiling melody from the soloist. The movement gathered momentum, making relentless technical demands without being an overt display of showmanship. A thorny though brief scherzo as the concerto’s centerpiece showed the composer in a more recognizable guise as an enfant terrible. Severe challenges by and large met with aplomb, one nonetheless wanted cleaner intonation when the scoring reached high into the soloist’s register.

The finale served as the most wide-ranging segment of this compact concerto, at its endpoint landing on dreamy material in the spirit of where it all began. As an encore, Hristova offered the Bulgarian folk song “Ratchenitsa”, quipping that it would “break the mood of that gorgeous ending” – which it surely did, but in the best way possible!

Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony dates from 1939, right on the cusp of World War II. It’s a powerful statement to be sure, but a perplexing work, not in the least because of its unusual structure: three movements, beginning with a vast Largo that occupies more space than the latter two fast movements combined. A searching melody in the low strings opened, not quite grounded. Sparse textures prevailed in this deeply personal, unembellished statement, sustaining a desolate atmosphere. A particularly striking moment came when string trills were pitted against strident brass.

The following Allegro was light-hearted, playful fare by contrast, gaining enormous vigor with its bombastic percussion. A oblique invocation of the Dies irae, however, suggested the darkness of the opening had hardly been overcome. The closing Presto was marked by a rambunctious dance-like theme, as caustic and sardonic as anything Shostakovich wrote.

ProMusica closes the year with lush Brahms and Mendelssohn

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ProMusica Chamber Orchestra
David Danzmayr, conductor
Vadim Gluzman, violin
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
December 10, 2022

Chin: subito con forza
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
 Encore:
 Gluck: “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Orfeo ed Euridice (trans. Kreisler)
MacMillan: One
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107, Reformation

The final ProMusica program of the year presented two major scores from the 19th century (both in D major!), each prefaced by a brief but fitting contemporary work. Unusk Chin’s 2020 work subito con forza certainly made for an energetic opening. An homage of sorts to Beethoven, the opening gesture invoked the Coriolan overture before veering in a different direction, and powerful writing for the piano hinted at the Emperor piano concerto.

Vadim Gluzman, David Danzymar, and ProMusica, photo credit ProMusica

In her opening remarks, ProMusica CEO Janet Chen noted that this marks ten years since David Danzmayr and Vadim Gluzman assumed their current roles of music director and creative partner respectively. What followed was a veritable celebration of this now decade-long collaboration in Brahms’ Violin Concerto. The orchestral introduction was marked by an arching lyricism, and a fiery contrasting theme provided set up for the violin’s entrance. More lyrical material saw Gluzman sailing into the upper range of his instrument with a tone limber and flexible. The partnership between conductor, soloist, and orchestra certainly paid its dividends in convincingly conveying the large-scale architecture of the expansive opening movement.

A choir of winds opened the plangent Adagio, and Gluzman responded with a songful lyricism of his own. The Hungarian-inflected finale was a jocular affair, given with authentic flair. Gluzman returned with an encore in Gluck’s “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from the opera Orfeo ed Euridice – presented in Kreisler’s transcription for violin with a touch of orchestral accompaniment. Its gorgeous, long-bowed melody was a lovely pendant to the Brahms.

As the title suggests, James MacMillan’s 2012 essay One explores single-line melodies, monastic in its starkness and somewhat suggestive of Gregorian chant. The religious orientation was apropos as it led without pause to Mendelssohn’s Reformation symphony – a fitting follow up to last season’s performances of the Scottish and Italian symphonies (perhaps a future ProMusica season could offer the rarely heard First and Second symphonies?). The slow introduction saw a rich invocation in the strings of the divine Dresden amen; the movement proper took shape with vigor in the stormier minor, delivered with momentum and precision.

The Allegro vivace was playful, lighter fare by contrast, and the gentle Andante was noted for its languid melody in the strings. The finale introduced the Lutheran hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott in the flute (Nadine Hur) with matters building to a climax of both contrapuntal intricacy and festive exuberance.

Columbus Symphony, Chorus, and soloists deliver a riveting Glagolitic Mass

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Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Cameron Carpenter, organ

Abigail Rethwisch, soprano
Mariana Karpatova, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Burton, tenor
Adam Cioffari, bass

Columbus Symphony Chorus
Ronald J. Jenkins, chorus director

Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
November 18, 2022

Nielsen: Overture to Maskarade
Poulenc: Organ Concerto in G minor, FP 93
Janáček: Glagolitic Mass

For the final subscription program of the calendar year, the Columbus Symphony served a fascinating program of three compelling yet infrequently heard works – the latter two which made use of the Ohio Theatre’s opulent Morton organ. The overture to Carl Nielsen’s ebullient opera Maskarade was of insouciant charm, with playing lithe and stylish for an energetic curtain-raiser.

Rossen Milanov, Cameron Carptener, and the Columbus Symphony, photo credit Corinne Mares

Composed 1934-38, Poulenc’s Organ Concerto is a product of the composer’s characteristic neoclassicism, but of a darker, more serious orientation than that employed in his earlier keyboard concertos – namely, the Concert champêtre and the Concerto for Two Pianos, works charming if a bit saccharine. The work is constructed as a single movement, though subdivided into seven discrete sections. It was a special treat to hear the Morton organ, and soloist Cameron Carpenter took masterful command of the instrument. A commanding opening for organ alone invoked the gravitas of Bach, but the lighter section that followed unmistakably bore Poulenc’s neoclassical stamp. A languid Andante moderato, by far the longest section, offered ample contrast.

Carpenter was assertively committed to utilizing the full possibilities of the Morton organ (and spoke in reverence of it during the pre-concert conversation), but one wondered how the piece would have come across differently had a more traditional concert hall organ been available (even in the more serious passages, to my ears the instrument inevitably invoked silent film accompaniment). A dramatic return of the opening material came in the final section before matters were distilled to hymn-like material – suggesting the composer’s reinvigorated interest in Catholicism at the time – and decorated with a delicate passage for solo viola, all a peaceful diversion before the bold closing statement. Carpenter returned with an encore that showed his sterling technique and exploited the instrument’s color and dramatic range.

Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass is a major artistic statement coming from the twilight years of the composer’s life. A setting of the mass in vernacular Czech, it is imposingly scored for large orchestra, organ, chorus, and a quartet of vocal soloists. Cast in eight movements, the first and final are for orchestra alone, the penultimate for organ alone. The opening orchestral introduction was a brassy call to attention, introducing an angular theme in Janáček’s rarefied musical language. In Gospodi pomiluj, the chorus entered as a pious contrast to the bracing orchestra, only to grow in urgency with the addition of soprano Abigail Rethwisch.

Slava was comparatively brighter, with the chorus impressive in negotiating the complexities of both the work itself and of the Czech language. Striking too was the use of organ and the composer’s unique use of the orchestral resources at hand. Jonathan Burton added a lyrical tenor to the extensive Věruju, and an organ interlude anticipated the solo movement to come. Adam Cioffari offered a resonant bass, finely complementing the richness of the chorus. Svet was by turn more pensive, with a touching solo line from concertmaster Joanna Frankel, and all four soloists in concert. That the seventh movement would be scored for organ alone underscored the importance of the instrument to the work; intensely dramatic, it was a further chance for Carpenter to shine, and the orchestra was subsequently given the last word in an ecstatically powerful final statement.

Berlin Philharmonic closes Carnegie Hall residency with astonishing Mahler

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Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, conductor
Stern Auditorium
Carnegie Hall
New York, NY
November 12, 2022

Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E minor

The first concert reviewed on this blog was the Berlin Philharmonic performing Mahler’s Seventh in Ann Arbor under former chief conductor Simon Rattle on Saturday, November 12, 2016. Exactly six years to the day later, we here at quasi-faust had the distinct privilege of witnessing the same ensemble in the same work, this time around at Carnegie Hall with Rattle’s successor Kirill Petrenko. The Seventh is perhaps the most enigmatic of all the Mahler symphonies, hanging on the precipice of musical modernism without quite leaving behind its Romantic pathos. Memory fades over time, but it seemed to me that Petrenko’s approach was generally a similar conception to Rattle’s, lushly Romantic and soaring to intensely dramatic heights. A thrilling close to the Philharmonic’s three-night stint at Carnegie Hall, its first appearance there since Petrenko took the reins.

Kirill Petrenko leads the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, photo credit Chris Lee

The idiosyncratic rhythmic gesture that opened the sprawling first movement was given with pointed articulation, emphasizing the dotted rhythms. Matters were shrouded in an ineffable air of mystery, and the imposing solo for tenor horn grabbed one’s attention with chilling intensity. The music amassed weight and vigor as a march-like processional, while a peaceful interlude spoke to the composer’s wonderment of nature with particularly lush and lovely passagework in the harp. The coda – one of my favorite moments – was thrilling and unrelenting, a masterful conclusion.

The first of the two Nachtmusik movements began with a memorable dialogue between horns – one present, one distant. Col legno strings added to the vast palette of orchestral color, and folk-inflected melodies invoked the Austrian countryside, with cowbells leaving little guesswork as to Mahler’s alpine inspiration. With its Schattenhaft (“shadowy”) tempo marking, the central scherzo too occupied the realm of the night. Unlike the lightheartedness one might associate with such a movement, this was an essay mysterious and enigmatic, often as if in terror of some spectral presence, though the occasional lyrical passage offered moments of clarity. The latter Nachtmusik turned languid and sensuous, with some fine playing from concertmaster Daishin Kashimoto, and the lovely addition of the guitar and mandolin. Goosebumps-inducing lyricism made this one of the highpoints.

A startling wakeup was the to be had in the Rondo Finale, opening in boisterous resound with the theme hammered out in the timpani, a spirit only outdone by the brilliance of the brass. Despite being well past the one-hour mark at this point, the orchestra showed no sign of waning energy. Horns were pointed outward for maximum impact, and the clangorous percussion battery made matters all the more visceral. A truly remarkable performance, duly satisfying one’s hopes and desires for one of Mahler’s most remarkable conceptions.

Powerful Brahms and charming Dvořák at the Columbus Symphony

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Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Shai Wosner, piano
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
November 5, 2022

Montgomery: Starburst
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83
 Encore:
 Schubert: Hungarian Melody, D817
Dvořák: Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60

Jessie Montgomery is a contemporary composer that has rightfully garnered much attention in recent years, and the Columbus Symphony opened their program with her 2012 work Starburst – a welcome further foray into her work after their inclusion of Banner last season (a program which in fact paired Montgomery with the same composers here). Starburst quite literally bursted with infectious, sparkling energy. One only wished this was sustained longer than its 5-minute duration, and I hope Montgomery is a composer the CSO continues to visit.

Shai Wosner with Rossen Milanov and the Columbus Symphony, photo creditt Corinne Mares

Brahms’ vast Second Piano Concerto made for a heavier contrast, and featured Israeli pianist Shai Wosner. A mellow horn call from principal Brian Mangrum made for a majestic opening to the weighty first movement. Wosner performed with intense, singular focus, though I felt his playing veered a bit too cautious and restrained. Although his technique wasn’t flawless, it nonetheless served well the daunting demands of the work. Both pianist and conductor Rossen Milanov seemed aligned in their conception of the grand, sweeping arc of the movement.

The scherzo that followed was hardly a trifle, still bearing much of the weight of the preceding, but sprightlier material contrasted. A deeply lyrical cello solo (Luis Biava) opened the Andante, and the piano entered with a gentle, song-like touch. The payoff came in the finale with its folk-inflected abandon, though hardly short on drama. As an encore, Wosner offered a lovely account of Schubert’s Hungarian Melody.

Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony was a milestone for the composer in that it was the first to published, and shows him blossoming into a mature symphonist. The spacious, expansive Allegro non tanto opened with a gentle, bucolic theme over pulsating accompaniment. It was certainly apposite to precede the symphony with Brahms as it bears the elder composer’s influence (particularly from Brahms’ own D major symphony), yet not without Dvořák’s individual hallmarks. 

A touching moment of repose was to be had in the Adagio, its thematic material charmingly introduced in the winds. The composer unmistakably revealed in his Czech origins in the lively furiant that followed, and the orchestra deftly negotiated the ever-changing meters, an energetic warmup of sorts for the jubilant finale.

Kibbey and Kenney delight in harp and violin duos at Chamber Music Columbus

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Bridget Kibbey, harp
Alexi Kenney, violin
Southern Theatre
Columbus, OH
November 5, 2022

Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie in A major, Op. 124
Hu: Chamber Music Columbus Fanfare
CPE Bach: Sonata in G Minor, H 542.5
Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
Larsen: Sun Strider
Biber: Mystery Sonata No. 1 (“Annunciation”)
Messiaen: Vocalise-étude
Dowland: Flow my Teares
Rodrigo: Madrigales amatorios
Falla: Siete canciones populares españolas
Currier: Night Time

Appealing as the combination may seem, music for harp and violin duo is an uncommon occurrence. Leave it Bridget Kibbey and Alexi Kenney to make a strong case for the medium in lovely program of duets at Chamber Music Columbus. Most of the selections performed were by necessity arrangements of other works, but the duo highlighted a few pieces written expressly for this combination, including a world premiere from Libby Larsen.

Alexi Kenney and Bridget Kibbey, photo credit Chamber Music Columbus

One such work with this instrumentation in mind was Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie in A major. Graciously lyrical, the musical synergy between Kibbey and Kenney was apparent from the first bars. Impressive virtuosity served well the fantasy, improvisatory-like elements of the piece. Following was Ching-chu Hu’s Fanfare, a mainstay of all Chamber Music Columbus performances this season. After previously hearing it cast for brass quintet, it was quite fascinating to hear it undertaken by such vastly different forces.

A transcription of a sonata by CPE Bach opened with extravagant material for harp alone, and the violin later joined in imitation. A long-bowed violin melody over harp filigree made a touching Adagio, and the rapid finale was given with seamless cohesion. In place of the Clara Schumann Romances, Op. 22 listed on the program, the duo opted for the livelier Romanian Folk Dances of Bartók, a series of six miniatures (originally for piano, Sz. 56) boasting a folksy flair.

A co-commission from Chamber Music Columbus and the Schubert Club of Saint Paul, Minnesota (an ever older organization than CMC – celebrating 140 years this season!), Libby Larsen’s Sun Strider opened the second half. Matters gradually amassed, gathering energy, and the different characteristics of the strings of each instrument were exploited for contrast (a subject Larsen discussed during my interview with her). Novel sounds were drawn from the harp, taking full advantage of Kibbey’s peerless technique, and the work was at heart deeply lyrical – and generously so. The title evokes the sun’s journey across the sky; when sunset arrived, the music faded away, leaving only the vibrations of the strings.

A varied selection of shorter works followed, beginning with the first of Biber’s mystical Mystery Sonatas. Though separated by a few centuries. Messiaen’s Vocalise-étude occupied a similar sense of religious wonderment. For a Spanish sojourn, Rodrigo’s Madrigales amatorios were interwoven with selections from Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas, works by turn feisty and jaunty or sultry and seductive.

Sebastian Currier’s 1998 work Night Time closed the recital – along with the Saint-Saëns and the new Hu and Larsen pieces, the only other work on the program conceived originally for harp and violin. Depicting the enigma of the night, its striking musical language seemed to be Currier’s response to Bartók’s “night music.” The second movement “Sleepless” was appropriately filled with jarringly irregular accents, though calm arrived in the concluding “Starlight” wherein matters drifted off into the depths of night.