Professor goes to the Barber
Concerto highlights WSO performance
by Christopher Key
If Maestro Roger Briggs of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra wants to call it an Anniversary Concert, who am I to argue? There is no doubt that Franz Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago and Richard Strauss died 60 years ago. The other anniversaries Briggs cited were, however, something of a stretch. No matter. It was another superb performance by our homegrown orchestra complete with a homegrown guest artist.
First on the program was Haydn’s Symphony 104 in D Major. Papa Haydn is considered the father of the symphonic form and the fact that he fathered 104 of them is mind-boggling. It’s a tribute to his immense genius that number 104, which he wrote at age 63, is just as fresh and exciting as number one, which he wrote at age 27. Haydn’s music is always full of surprises and good humor, just like the WSO. It’s a musical marriage made in heaven.
Western Washington University professor Jeffrey Gilliam then took the helm of the concert grand for Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Piano, Op. 38. This piece is as much an athletic event as a musical composition and Gilliam had to mop his brow during one brief pause. Even during the somewhat less intense second movement, it’s an extraordinarily demanding work. The third movement is marked allegro molto, which, loosely translated, means like a bat out of hell. Gilliam’s performance was as spectacular as the work itself and brought the crowd to its feet with a chorus of well-deserved bravos.
The Barber concerto is a tough act to follow, so Dr. Briggs wisely scheduled an intermission to give the audience a chance to unwind a bit. Helping bring everyone’s vital signs back to normal, the orchestra performed the Intermezzo from Giacomo Puccini’s early opera Manon Lescaut. As one music scholar pointed out, the first act of the opera is all gaiety and the second half is all gloom. The Intermezzo prepared audiences for the second half. The WSO brought out all the subtleties of the piece.
What could be more appropriate to close the concert than Richard Strauss’ tone poem Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24. According to legend, Strauss’ last words to his daughter were, “Dying is just as I composed it.” This piece was also appropriate for the finale since Strauss had abandoned the symphonic form Haydn fathered. If you’ll excuse the expression, the WSO’s performance was to die for, especially the strings.
There was a distressingly high number of empty seats at the Mount Baker Theatre today, perhaps the effects of the economic meltdown. That’s unfortunate because prices for WSO concerts are remarkably low and give a lot of bang for the entertainment buck. The next concert, on Saturday, April 25, is a great example. It will feature Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, which makes Beethoven’s Ninth sound rather restrained. There will be an augmented orchestra, a huge chorus and medical personnel on hand to treat the overwhelmed. If you haven’t heard this work performed live, you haven’t heard it.
Tickets for WSO performances are available through the Mount Baker Theatre box office, (360) 734-6080. www.whatcomsymphony.com.
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