Reviews

ODU Symphony: American Memories
Paul Kim Conducts Soprano Agnes Fuller Wynne
University Theater, September 27, 2017
Review by John Campbell

With an orchestra of 57 players—a bit heavy with cellos and a bit light on violins—we heard a fine selection of American music by Chadwick, Barber and Still drawn from the first half of the 20th century.

The program opened with Kelby Schnepel conducting Euterpe Overture (1903) by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931). Mr. Schnepel is currently in the masters program in music education at ODU and is a music educator and cellist. Boston born Chadwick was part of the musical elite of his time. At age 23 he went to Leipzig and Munich to study and returned to teach harmony and composition at New England Conservatory. The dense music illustrated brief shifting moods, sometimes somber, sometimes loud and tubby. His music is still neglected even though he has recently gained respect for his teaching innovations that led to vital American classical music. The finale was a celebration led by trumpets!

One of the most popular vocal pieces of mid-20th century American music is Samuel Barber's (1910-1981) Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a tender setting of prose by James Agee. Agee describes an extended family on quilts in the yard in a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee. The music is built around the sounds of city activities and the quiet talking of the little boy's family. There is a sweet nostalgia in the music as the vocalist Agnes Fuller Wynne sang his words, opening with serene, supple vocal lines, delivered with the lilt of triple rhythms. Instruments characterize the city sounds: night insects, the gentle spray of a garden hose, the hollow iron music of the brash passing of a street car.

Barber's lyricism has remained popular, winning out over the more strident composers of the last half of the 20th century. His instrumental music is often performed as are his songs. He studied at the Curtis Institute where he met soon-to-be opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti. They remained life-long lovers. Barber was an able pianist and a baritone of some talent but an even more accomplished composer. Both the ODU Symphony, led by Dr. Paul Kim, and Ms. Wynne served the music well. This performance would have had me falling in love with the music but that happened more than 50 years ago.

After intermission the opening selection was lead by guest conductor Dr. Timothy Dixon, a widely traveled conductor in the U.S. and Europe and Director of Orchestral Studies at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Dixon is an advocate for William Grant Still's (1895-1978) Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American) (1930). I thank him for my first opportunity to hear this work. Still had entered Oberlin Conservatory at age 16 and later studied with Chadwick and Edgard Varèse while supporting himself by playing in orchestras and bands. It was Chadwick who suggested that Still incorporate elements of African-American and popular musical styles in his works. An oboe opening leads to jazzy muted horns with a toe-tapping rhythm in classical form enhanced by skillfully orchestrated instrumental colors. Moderato assai “Longing” characterizes the overall mood. This gives way in the second movement, Adagio “Sorrow,” sweetened by lyricism incorporating black nightclub music of that era.

The third movement, Animato “Humor,” has a wide-open feeling including a banjo solo in a ''I Got Rhythm” sort of way with variations and a blunt ending. The writing in the last movement, Lento, con risoluzione “Aspiration,” is conventional to begin but becomes lively with a sort of fun guffaw of drums and horns and a quirky, energetic, full-out sound to climax.

As I experienced this symphony I compared it to Gershwin's orchestral music (always orchestrated by someone else) and I concluded that if Still were Jewish instead of Black we'd know his music better. Color certainly is an element in who was to become popular but Gershwin's quirky series of tunes strung together with so-so orchestration does have a common appeal. Still's conservative academic training stifled his Afrocentric music-making—a loss to us all.

Side-by-Side: ODU & VSO Play Beethoven,
Liszt and Saint Saëns Organ Symphony
Paul Kim, Gonzalo Farias, James Kosnik
Sandler Center, February 21, 2019
Review by John Campbell

To support talented students at Old Dominion University, the university has joined with Virginia Symphony Orchestra in an innovative collaboration. On this night the students gained real world experience performing alongside their VSO mentors. We owe this performance to the F. Ludwig Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation that has provided funds to launch this partnership while seeking other donors who will support this collaboration in future seasons. Other dimensions of the collaboration were listed in the program insert.

The opening piece with students and professionals playing together was the Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72B (1806) composed by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). The lyrical, slow, solemn introduction conducted by Paul Kim of ODU offered strings in unison that began softly. Soon it opened into a magnificent heraldic hymn to liberty. Trumpets from the left mezzanine added to the orchestral fanfare. We watched as Dr. Kim moved with total engagement as he danced us toward the coda with its spectacular expansion for the violins. A brief, busy section leads into a celebrational conclusion. Acoustic clarity in the Sandler made this our favorite piece of the evening with its glorious sound.

Next Dr. Kim conducted Les Preludes, S.97 by Franz Liszt (1811-1886). This is Liszt's most popular symphonic poem and the third in a dozen he wrote after inventing this new genre. His symphonic poems were written as free-standing works to distill the essence of poetic concepts in musical form. The dreamy opening theme begins quietly, grows larger, then dies away. Each time the theme returns it is transformed, reflecting varied moods and each time, a new instrument repeats the three-note theme: horns, solo flute, clarinet, harp, trumpets. These repeats grow into a new statement by the entire orchestra and often conclude with pounding percussion. A second theme, related to the first, provides contrast. It all wraps up with a great bombastic conclusion, vividly played.

After intermission Virginia Symphony Orchestra's new assistant conductor, Gonzalo Farias, led the joined orchestras. Mr. Farias was born in Santiago de Chile and educated there until he came to the New England Conservatory for his graduate degree. He is an award-winning pianist and passionate educator. Mentored by Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony for the past two years, he is now under the guidance of our beloved JoAnn Falletta. Mr. Farias' ambition is “to establish music making as a way of rethinking our place in society by cultivating respect, trust and cooperation among all people in our community."

He led Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 (Organ Symphony) by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). The organist was the distinguished Dr. James W. Kosnik, who joined the ODU faculty in 1982. The Saint-Saëns symphony was commissioned by London Philharmonic Society and the composer led the premiere in London on May 19, 1886. The work was dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt. To the typical forces of a large orchestra the composer added his and Liszt's primary instruments, the organ and piano. Nichole Dorobanov of ODU was the pianist. Her arpeggios in the finale were brilliant, and she's still a student! The strings alone offered the main theme which opens the first movement. This movement incorporates the chant at the beginning of the Dies irae, a melody associated with both death and the Totentanz (dance of death) by Liszt. As a neo-classicist, Saint-Saëns has a disciplined approach—neat proportions, clarity, a polished expression and an elegant line.

In the Adagio second movement the strings are supported by organ chords. Because the portable organ was not amplified enough, its sound was small and made little impact. This problem persisted throughout the work. Woodwinds took the peaceful theme with variations that led to a later restless energy. Near the end there is a brilliant mixture of woodwinds and organ reed stops. Well into the third movement the tempo changes to Presto and the piano enters with rapid, rising arpeggios and scales played several times in different harmonies. The opening material returns but what at first sounded like a reprise introduced a new theme played by the deeper voiced instruments under busy figurations that anticipate the finale. The finale opened with a powerful chord played on the organ. The main theme appeared, tied to the Dies irae. Quiet music followed before the organ and orchestra joined in a powerful transformed theme. After development the piece closed "with all stops” out with brilliant, powerful percussion.