|
Led by Dr. Paul Kim, the opening music was Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16. Freshman Christina Wong was pianist in Movement I, Allegro molto moderato, by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). The music began with a drum roll and solo piano flourish, followed by a simple main theme played by the winds that is taken over by the piano that increases the drama. The cello subject is by contrast "soulful" allowing the pianist to shine brilliantly, especially in the solo passages that followed. Trumpets usher in the development and later on the reprise as well. A dramatic solo piano cadenza leads us to the end. On the podium Dr. Kim moved like a dancer living out the experience. The intermission that followed allowed for the stage to be reset for orchestra in front and singers in the back of the curved chancel. In brief remarks Dr. Nancy Klein spoke of her years of advocating for a performance hall for the ODU Symphony on the campus while thanking Thalia Lynn Baptist Church for providing a venue over the years for the orchestra. Incidentally, not only can it accommodate the symphony but it is also a very live acoustic space. Then Dr. Klein conducted orchestra and chorus in the seventy-seven-minute German Requiem, sung in German with text from the Lutheran Bible (no connection to the text used for a Catholic Requiem mass). In fact the naming of Christ is avoided throughout the work. Brahms was a humanist and an agnostic. Dvorák is quoted as having said "Such a great man! Such a great soul! And he believes in nothing!" Dr. Klein encouraged us to read the translated text in our programs later. The seven sections speak to the fact that all living beings will die and offer comfort to all that mourn, encouraging us to be reassured that we live in a benign universe. Death can be viewed as a comfort, with the ever present possibility that "The dead shall be raised incorruptible . . . that death is swallowed up in victory" resoundingly sung by bass Larry Giddens. The music offers a breadth of feeling, power, and sheer beauty that places this Requiem as a masterpiece of choral orchestral music. Church music used to be performed reverently (slowly); modern trends today give us the faster, flowing tempos of Brahms' own arrangement of this music for piano four-hands. In summary, Brahms wrote his Requiem to bless those left living in the world, not the dead. The work aspires to comfort those who mourn. Dr. Nancy Klein's steady hands guided the orchestra and chorus with power and clarity. Soprano Nairobi King sang with lovely sound, "Sorrow will be replaced with rejoicing . . . after a period of rest and comfort." In section III, bass Larry Jay Giddens sang "That I may know how frail I am," later pointing out that our endeavor and upsets are unnecessary in the "big picture." The fifty singers included ODU undergrads as well as ten alumni and faculty guest singers, and Carter Campbell and Oliver Sealey, graduate assistants to Dr. Klein. The fifty-member orchestra included guest harpist Leah Armstrong. |