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CHAMBER ORCHESTRA REVIEW Echoes of Bach October 26, 2002
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By Brent Heisinger
Tasteful variety marked Saturday night's gala season opener of the San José Chamber Orchestra conducted by Barbara Day Turner. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor was nicely linked to Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1, 5, and 9, a tribute to Bach. These were contrasted with Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen. Style differences in the use of strings gave the program ongoing freshness. Excellent ensemble and expressiveness provided the sell-out audience with a stirring musical evening.
Conducted from the harpsichord by Turner, the chamber orchestra excelled at projecting the Baroque qualities inherent in Bach's concerto, the opening work. Bach was a legenderay keyboard player, but like most educated musicians of his time, he could also play the violin. His position as conductor of the court orchestra at Cöthen (1717-23) allowed him to concentrate on chamber music, and he completed, among many other works, this concerto and the famous "Brandenburg" concertos. The orchestra was particiularly attentive to imitative entrances in the first and third movements, performed with notable clarity, along with the attractive balance of the basso continuo in the second movement — credit the sensitivity of the double-bass player.
The outer movements were appropriately vibrant, setting up the lyrical slow movement which in turn prepared the listener for the famous "Aria" in Bachianas Brasileiras No.5. Soloists Cynthia Baehr and Robin Mayforth performed beautifully together. They were stylistically consistent and shared melodic prominence with special sensitivity. However, Mayforth's deeper tone quality, on a few occasions, created an imbalance between the two.
The combination of Cynthia Clayton's exquisite soprano voice, the compositional gift of Villa-Lobos, and the conducting skill of Turner was a sure-fire recipe for exceptional beauty. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) had great success combining elements of native folk and popular music with western classical traditions. His series of nine multi-movement Bachianas Brasileiras, written between 1938 and 1945, mingles Brazilian characteristics with Baroque practices. The composer labels most of the movements with a classical term followed by a Brazilian name. "Aria (Cantilena)," composed in 1938 for voice and eight cellos (his instrument), is remarkably haunting. In ternary form, the first section presents a soaring vocal line sung on the syllable "ah" and doubled with a solo cello above a pizzicato "basso continuo." A poem about the beauty of sunset is introduced and the return of the first melody is then hummed. A literal connection with Baroque harmonic practice is the appearance of chords based on the circle of fifths, i.e., subsequent chords at the interval of a descending fifth. This progression was heard earlier in the second movement of the Bach. Clayton carried us along with her in this soaring melody. Her very rich, compelling voice was perfect for the work (though I would have liked a more sustained last note) and her virtuosity was clearly evident in the second, lively and quite angular movement "Dansa (Martelo)." The revised order placed Bachianas Brasileiras No.1 (Preludio, Introduction) and "No.5" after the Bach concerto. The Preludio again introduced the Baroque harmonic circle of fifths in the Adagio and was expressively interpreted by the ensemble but with some intonation problems in the first cellos playing in unison in a very difficult high range. The solo cello performance in the return was impressive. Compositionally the "Introduction (Embolada)" is an awkward movement that sounded a bit insecure and in need of more rehearsal. The concert ended with the fugue from No.9, which loses momentum after the opening; the orchestra did all it could to make it work, but the problem rests with the composition.
The evening's masterpiece was Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) composed in March and April 1945 in memory of the allied bombing of the Munich Staatstheater, October 1943. It was argued in an Amsterdam newspaper article that Strauss wrote the work as a memorial to Hitler; however, on the day of the bombing, Strauss began his first sketches giving them the name "Mourning for Munich" along with quotes from Goethe, here translated: "No one can truly know himself . . . But what goes on in the world no one really understands . . ." The professedly apolitical Strauss was most likely expressing his profound sense of the loss to German culture that the war entailed. With a motive derived from the Funeral March from Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and four repeated notes suggesting the lament of King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, the 30-minute work begins in a somber mood and builds with increased rhythmic activity, dissonance, and orchestral density, leaving a strong impression of anguish. The variety in orchestration is unique indeed, given the 23 different parts, and the orchestra's performance met the challenge of Strauss' musical brooding. Bravos to Barbara Day Turner for her interpretation, which clearly highlighted the important motifs in an often complex and dense texture and for an evening of conducting well done.
(Brent Heisinger is a composer and a conductor and Professor of Music, Emeritus, at San Jose State University.)
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Cynthia Clayton