San Francisco Classical Voice

Oakland and the East Bay community are fortunate to have the Oakland East Bay Symphony as a cultural resource. In a time when some might question the relevance of a symphony orchestra to its community, the OEBS stresses its community involvement, rejoices in its diversity, and pursues its commitment to American music of the 20th century. After an absence of some years, I was reacquainted with that fact last Friday night.

The program was a testament to conductor Michael Morgan's interest in the music of today, featuring both Fanfares & Fantasies by Peter Knell in its world premiere, and Samuel Barber's nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

The Knell work was a commission from the James Irvine Foundation, a supporter of the music of today. Knell writes that in this work he "attempts to encompass the richness of our historical moment." Alas, at first hearing, it seems a goal unfulfilled. Fanfares that rely on protracted dissonance seem to me to be counterintuitive. I also found the fantasies, which separate the fanfares, to be too amorphous to have distinguishing melodic characteristics. Perhaps it was the density of the scoring that made it so difficult to follow the line of the music. The work ends with a sort of fugue whose subject seems to highly derivative of Stravinsky. Craig Knox played the concluding tuba solo with great artistry.

The second half of the concert opened with the Barber, glowingly performed by soprano Cynthia Clayton. Set to a text by James Agee, Knoxville exudes a warmth and passion for life in an earlier time this century. Clayton, whose career began in the Bay Area, sang with a precision of rhythm, pitch and diction that I have found uncommon among younger singers. She was able to mold her voice to the subtleties of the text, and was particularly moving in the closing section..."the hour of their taking away." Morgan accompanied the performance with subtlety, and the solos by Stuart Gronningen (horn) and Andrea Plesnarski (English horn) were elegant and refined.

Mozart's Jupiter Symphony followed the opening Fanfares in a performance that also revealed how fortunate the orchestra is to have Nathan Rubin as concertmaster. Rubin plays with a suavity of sound which his players are seduced to emulate. Thus, the quality of sound in the strings is as refined as that of any orchestra in its class. This was particularly noticeable in the second movement.

For his part, Morgan, rather than subjecting the piece to the endless "phrasings" that so often corrupt its metric structure, led a straight-ahead" performance that relied on clarity of line and attention to rhythm, particularly in the second movement. It did seem that the performers ran out of steam in the majestic last movement, stopping to gather their wits before the assault on the final quadruple fugue. As a result, the conception did not seem to be whole. Had it been the last piece of the evening, perhaps the result would have been more satisfying.

The concert closed with Dvorak's silly Symphonic Variations. This piece has gained some currency recently in the Bay Area, and after three local performances, I still fail to understand why. Its structure reminds me of Jacques Pepin slicing vegetables. For the most part, I hear in this piece a succession of six to eight measure phrases, any one of which could mercifully bring the piece to a close. Not all works by the masters are masterpieces.

Finally, a word must be said about the Paramount Theater itself. This is a grand palace whose acoustical problems have not been solved even after twenty or so years. This was particularly evident in the Barber, as whenever Clayton turned away to face another part of the house, her lustrous voice tended to meld into the textural fabric, and the words were lost to the ear. In orchestral ensemble sections, it became difficult to pick out any individual lines, particularly in the middle voices. We can continue to hope that the theater management will address this most vexing problem.

(Kenneth Harrison is a retired professor of music theory and instrumental music. He is a professional violist, and was for many years associated with the Cabrillo Music Festival as Associate Conductor, Principal Violist, and Personnel Manager.)

©2000 Kenneth Harrison , all rights reserved