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Varèse, Bach, Sibelius |
| GSA Orchestra Side-by-side VCU Orchestra |
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Reviews
GSA's Messiah, December 11, 2018 The very alive sound-space was filled by the fresh and urgent performance of the GSA Chorus and the GSA Chamber Orchestra led by Jeff Phelps. Stephen Z. Cook prepared the singers and Shelly Milam-Ratliff tweaked their diction for this venue. The New York Times praised this year's Trinity Wall Street (NYC) performance because members of the chorus stepped out to sing solos “creating a sense of the oratorio as town hall meeting.” GSA has been doing this for some time, giving a Messiah solo experience to a host of students over the years. Mr. Phelps' tempos were crisp and the chorus was brilliant and energetic with certain phrases of the text outstanding. Donte Thompson's Comfort Ye had power and Kurt Lannetti's Every Valley offered transparent clarity. The vivid, glorious chorus followed singing And the Glory of the Lord and And He Shall Purify. The “right there” presence of Elissa Dresdner in O thou that Tellest Good Tidings with chorus was outstanding. Sung by Brooke Jones, Rejoice, Greatly with Baroque trills was amazing. Alto Saniyyah Bamberg sang only two lines of Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and made us want to hear more of her lovely voice. He Shall Feed his Flock's soothing, enfolding text was shared by Kennedy Stone and Gemauria Fennell before their fine singing was swept away by the chorus' His Yoke is Easy and Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs (one of two selections from Part II of Messiah). The other, How Beautiful Are the Feet, was sung by high soprano Hannah Brockhausen to fine effect. The only piece from Part III, The Trumpet Shall Sound, was a duet for singer Jaelin Mitchell and trumpeter, GSA alum, Hamed Barbarji, thrilling us as he has for several years now. Things wrapped-up with the Part II Hallelujah Chorus and we all stood, sharing the excitement of a glorious performance. This performance sated our need for Messiah this holiday; in fact we attended no others!
Having all the Governor's School for the Arts departments under one roof has led to some delicious co-productions. There they are taught by some faculty members shared by both Old Dominion University and GSA. This situation helped to create a very diverse program. For a high school senior, Brooke Jones has an excellent and developed soprano voice. The evening opened with her singing Bachianias Brasileiras No. 5 (1945) by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), accompanied by eight members of the GSA Cello Ensemble, including faculty members Jeff Phelps and Dionne Smith. The well coordinated voices of eight cellos backed a lyrically expansive voice in music growing out of a Bach Baroque suite with Latin rhythms and exotic bird-like melodies. This was followed by Ionisation (1931) by Edgar Varèse (1883-1965) where four GSA budding percussionists joined eight ODU current students and alumni. Artistic Director of Instrumental Music Stephen Coxe was at the piano with several small percussion instruments within his reach and all were conducted by David Walker who heads Percussion Studies at ODU. Both Walker and Coxe are on the GSA faculty as is ODU alumni Dennis Northerner. Born in France in 1883, Varèse emigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen in 1926. At that time American audiences were besotted with Beethoven and American composers could generate no attention. Varèse's dramatic pieces tried to break through. He was a tireless experimenter, “looking for the bomb that would explode, letting in all sounds,” says critic Alex Ross. Brooke Jones once again regaled the audience with J.S. Bach's (1685-1750) Cantata 82, Ïch habe genug (I have enough). In December we reviewed an earlier performance of this work performed by the same forces. The sound in the Roper Performing Arts Center was different from the intense, up-close experience of the Lady Chapel at Christ and St. Luke's Church. Here the wide hall diffused the sound and placed Ms. Jones' voice and Alysson Reichard's flute inside the sound of the GSA Chamber Orchestra conducted by Stephen Coxe from the harpsichord. It was equally lovely but less dramatically impactful than at the other venue. After intermission the single work performed was Symphony No. 3 in C Major, Op. 52 by Jean Sibelius and it was a major revelation for this listener. I know Sibelius from his art songs and tone poems and also other works played on classical public radio 90.3. Hearing his 3rd symphony has initiated for me the exploration of a new symphonic composer. Mahler was my youthful first love and Sibelius offers a different approach. I ordered a set of his seven symphonies and am on a new journey of exploration. Mahler was visiting Sibelius' home town Helsinki in 1907 and they talked. Alex Ross points out that “...the sensuous radicalism of Debussy … new possibilities in modal harmony and diaphanous orchestral color” were more to his taste. Sibelius shaped his 3rd Symphony following his ideas of "severity of form” and “profound logic” to connect his symphonic themes. While on the other hand Mahler felt that his symphonies “...must be like the world. It must be all-embracing.” Back to his third symphony. Sibelius reduced the number of movements to three with a playing time under 30 minutes as if he was rethinking the Classical style of Beethoven and Haydn a decade before Prokofiev and Stravinsky. The work opens with a vigorous rhythmic statement in the lower strings (cellos and basses). The theme is an assortment of related but disconnected fragments—a sprightly woodwind tune, a dotted figure in the violins and a noble idea in triplets first in horns and then in woodwinds as the opening passage reaches a climax. There is a dramatic shift to a B minor second theme. This fine cello melody soon disintegrates into running 16th notes that were heard earlier in the woodwinds. Sibelius cunningly overlaps the development and recapitulation. After a slightly extended repeat of the first theme, the second theme is played out in E minor against a harsh, loud woodwind background. Once again, there are sixteenth notes but before they can take over, the music moves into a noble coda. The second movement begins with a gentle, fragmented dance, a tune perfect in its blend of gracefulness and melancholy. Brief connecting figures in the clarinets offer attractive cross rhythms. All of this reminds me of Mahler until it winds down to a mournful G sharp minor to prepare for a schizophrenic central section. Starting slowly, the third and last movement gains energy with steady Allegro eighth notes which carry the rest of the movement to a thrilling climax in A flat major. A new and robust theme emerges as the lower strings dominate. Big, full bodied playing carried us to the end.
Honoring the weekend dance festival in its own way, the Instrumental Music Department of the Governor's School for the Arts in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University presented a program titled Music of the Americas, choosing pieces related to dance. VCU's Daniel Myssyk conducted music by three Latin American composers in the opening set: Ginastera, Márquez and Revueltas. After intermission GSA's Jeff Phelps conducted North American composer Leonard Bernstein, all on the theme of Latin dances. Music by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) opened the concert. His Danzón No. 2 (1995) is the most popular and most frequently performed of all Mexican contemporary classical music. Composed for full orchestra with solo parts for an array of instruments, it is lyrical with percussion (maracas) while the wood blocks set the rhythm with a variety of exotic percussion. The beginning is the sound of rowdy morning traffic: machines on a city street, “wa-wa” brasses, a sad love song and a quietly played movie soundtrack for a film noir. Then came a big band dance played precisely with intensity. It was a great luxury to have so many fine performers in the acoustically live Sandler Hall. By my count, the VCU Orchestra has 46 players and the GSA Orchestra has 76. That makes an orchestra of 112 with 18 cellists and 8 percussionists, including VSO player and GSA teacher George Corbett (English horn), alumns Jonathan Carr (E-flat clarinet) and James Nesbit (contrabassoon). David Garcia was guest artist (oboe) and seven GSA alumns are part of the VCU orchestra this year. Sensemayá (1937) by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) was played next. Revueltas' music was heard in New York City in the early 1940s after his death from alcoholism. Sensemayá (Chant to kill a snake) was originally a solo song accompanied by a small orchestra. A year later he rescored it for large orchestra without a singer. The piece opens with a deep, low rumble that carries the rhythmic pulse of the poem suggesting a pagan rite. VCU's Noah Mason on tuba played the main theme; it is then taken over by a muted trumpet and later other solo instruments follow. When the clarinet comes in half a step above, it grabs your attention. Cross rhythms, syncopation and changing meters all created tensions that built to a brilliant, big climax. Music by Argentinian Alberto Ginastera(1916-1983) followed with two movements of his Estancia (Ranch) (1943): II Danza del trigo (Wheat dance) and IV Danza final: Malambo. In his music there is a dynamic primitivism that betrays his debt to early Stravinsky but with Latin rhythms. Mixed into tension-building harmonies was tender lyricism. In Malambo is the culmination of this story: A city boy falls in love with a rancher's daughter. Only after he proves his worth by out-dancing the gauchos (local cowboys) does he win her over. Without breaking the Latin rhythmic mood, the conductors exchanged places and Jeffrey Phelps came to lead Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1957) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). The first section, Prologue, offers percussion that overpowers the strings. There are finger snaps, lazy lines, whistles and bells when the theme repeats. Somewhere is a dream song showing us a world that is all about love and friendship in contrast to the rivalry of the opening section's teenage gangs. The Scherzo continues the dream of a place where these young people will escape the slums and find space in the sun. The Mambo pops the visionary bubble and the gangs are back in the school gym in a competitive display of dancing. The fifth dance, Cha-Cha (Maria) recalls Tony and Maria's first meeting. The Cool Fugue is a fugue led by clarinet and flute bursting with tension for the impending gang fight with a loud, intense climax followed by music of sadness. The Finale is all strings with hearts open to the tragedy before us. Once again Conductor Phelps inspired students to go beyond what they believed they can do. For these two jaded listeners after 15 months of saturation by Bernstein's music, the GSA & VCU Orchestras' performance made very familiar music fresh again. We didn't think it was possible to hear this music as if for the first time. Back to Top Back to GSA Index Home Calendar Announcements Issues Reviews Articles Contact Us |