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SYMPHONY REVIEW
March 24, 2006
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Ed Op Music By Jeff Dunn
"Educational Opportunity" was the undeclared theme
of a widely varied and enthusiastically received Friday
concert of the Oakland East Bay Symphony led by
Michael Morgan. Prior to the concert, a chamber
orchestra of students from Oakland's Franklin
Elementary School played an arrangement of the "Frère
Jacques" funeral march from Mahler's First Symphony.
The first 20 minutes of the concert were devoted to
requests from Morgan and Franklin principal Jeannette
MacDonald to support the symphony and its outreach
program in the schools. But the most personal
educational opportunity came not directly from the
stage or lobby but from Concert Companion, a
handheld device available for rental that
broadcasts concert commentary in synch with the
music.
Concert Companion has been in use at OEBS concerts
since February 2005, with a focus on guiding
unsophisticated listeners through the music. The
innovation has been likened to opera surtitles and
prerecorded museum tours. Like any change in
something as stuffy as classical music, it is not without
controversy (see these details about the device and issues associated with it).
The commentary for Friday's concert was written by
preconcert lecturer John Kendall Bailey, and like its
author, founder of the Berkeley Lyric Opera,
emphasized the dramatic. Cognizant of his target
audience, Bailey kept technical terms to a minimum. To
provide the flavor and flow of Concert Companion's
ongoing commentary, examples are quoted in
parentheses in the remaining course of this review.
The concert began with a work by Edward Elgar, a
composer too infrequently heard here considering his
stature. The Introduction and Allegro for Strings
was capably handled by Morgan, who took the first
half of the work a bit on the slow side ("But the opening
forceful theme returns! … The solo quartet comes up
with a new idea, fast short and excited notes which
build and then recede."). Once the central fugato was
reached ("A new whimsical theme …") Morgan picked
up the pace and the strings responded with clearer
articulation to the climax ("Oops, the music feels it got
stuck. … We are pulled along as the speed slows down,
speeds up, and the music gets louder and softer."). It
was altogether an acceptable performance, but a bit
light on the passion and subtle rubato found in the
most successful recordings.
In contrast to the Elgar, the Beethoven Second Symphony leaped from the stage ("Ta-DA!") with its strong contrasts, deft orchestration, and expectation-foiling genius ("Each time the main theme is played it takes a left turn and never finishes. … The atmosphere is creepy here. … The oboes try to tell us to look the other direction."). Morgan's emphasis on these qualities of the music, and the accuracy of the orchestra in following his direction, made the Beethoven the highlight of the evening, although advocates of a more sedate, Kurt Masur-like approach might demur ("… hysterical earthquake-like tremors of notes …"). After intermission, soloist Tai Murray performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4. Seemingly note-perfect, with a fine tone, Murray turned in a creditable rendition, although some opportunities for maximal expression were constrained by an overly tense approach at first. Murray became more confident as the work proceeded and was most successful in the concluding Rondeau ("There sure are a lot of starts and stops in the movement, aren't there!"). A billboard to the musical world that new music can succeed was Morgan's placement of a recent work by Mason Bates at the end of the program. Seeing Omnivorous Furniture for Sinfonietta and Electronica on the program, as far as I could tell, caused nary a patron to head for an exit — a significant tribute to Morgan's "training" of his audience throughout his tenure in the knowledge that new music doesn't have to be toxic.
The work was first performed in 2004 by its commissioner, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Electronica is a pop-music term referring to computer-generated sounds, which Bates elicited himself from a large touchpad on stage. The sounds were restricted to a surprisingly narrow range of clicks, a tactic on Bates' part which could be justified as better integrating the computer's role with the orchestra rather than making it a whiz-bang dominatrix. But the risk remains that no single nontonal percussion instrument can be used long in a symphonic work without losing its effectiveness, and that is what happened with the electronica. Fortunately, there was plenty of variety in the rest of the orchestra to keep the audience's attention ("A new pulse — a spastic sounding out of bursts. … A sweet, expressive melody …"). An infectious beat at the outset and an increasing transition to lyrical elements kept the piece alive despite its relative lack of challenge to the ear. At the conclusion, when many gray-haired patrons rose to cheer along with a scattering of younger attendees, I was educated by the experience, realizing that "classical" music, in the throes of an unpredictable technologic and stylistic evolution, will never die. Ta-DA!
(Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and
a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano
and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and
president of Composers Inc.)
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Tai Murray
Mason Bates
Michael Morgan
