San Juan Symphony opens season with flair
By Judith Reynolds -
Special to the Herald
September 28, 2004
Showbiz, a fiddle and a great head of hair dazzled the locals last weekend at the Community Concert Hall.
Music Director Arthur Post opened the 2004-5 San Juan Symphony season with program pizzazz and a soloist to match. Post invited the hirsute young violinist Nicholas Kendall to star in "Fiddler's Dream," a program with only two familiar tunes and a marquee full of new and exciting works.
First, Post breathed new life into one warhorse on the program: Brahms' "Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor."
Slowing down and speeding up almost at will, Post exercised his right to rubato (flexible tempi) with flair. The gypsy-inspired dance opened a door for the audience to focus on what was to come.
What immediately followed was new to this reviewer and probably to most in the hall, musicians included: Kenji Bunch's "Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra."
Soloist Kendall began with what felt like an improvised cadenza - a dark, haunting line, low in the register, continuously returning to its anchor. When the orchestra eventually entered, a bittersweet sadness arrived. Periodically the violin soared over the ensemble, then returned to the somber cry of the opening gesture. In a middle section, the timpani (John Pennington) uttered a faint pulse, underscoring a feeling of anxious sadness. The only concert flaw came when the full orchestra drowned out a complex and demanding solo section. But overall, this beautiful piece had deep emotional resonance.
The concert also had lightness and humor. Chris Brubeck's "Interplay," a rousing work for three violin soloists and orchestra, delivered on its title's promise. The soloists intermingled three different musical styles: classical, bluegrass and jazz. Kendall raced down the bluegrass road, concertmistress Mikylah Myers McTeer tossed off Bach-inspired passages and Albuquerque violinist Phil Coonce slid into the blues. Post lifted his big contrabass onto the conductor's stand and made it a quartet.
The three violinists started off together, then the work took wing. The soloists played to and for each other and found moments for self mockery, particularly Myers McTeer. Heading into the final stretch after incredible intersections where the musical styles cross-fertilized each other, the orchestra slipped engagingly into a jaunty rumba and the whole band Tico-Ticoed home.
Now on his third visit to the Four Corners, Kendall has energized the orchestra like no other performer I've seen. When he's not in front as soloist, he's playing with the second violins. You can spot him by the body language and that head of hair. Kendall and about 20 young local musicians joined the orchestra for what Post calls the "side-by-side" part of the concert. Two sections of Aaron Copland's "Rodeo" showed what a really big orchestra sounds like - roughly 100 musicians-plus on stage.
After that flashy work, John Yankee's "Fiddler Jones" seemed subdued. The Telluride composer's piece, based on a text from "Spoon River Anthology," combines string ensemble with choir. Although written eight years ago, the work got world premiere billing because of revisions, presumably. (Locally. we need to give the "world premiere" label a rest). "Fiddler Jones" got a balanced reading, Fort Lewis College Chamber Choir, soloists, and string players rendered the plaintive work with a gentle dramatic arc.
Zoltán Kodály's "Dances of Galanta" closed the program, maintaining the slightly melancholic gypsy air set in motion by Brahms. Filled with solos framed by rousing full-ensemble fire, the work shifted through several musical ideas. Soloists who deserve mention include: clarinetist Mark Walters, oboist Pamela Epple, flutist Rochelle Mann, the entire horn section for an exposed and difficult passage, and the entire orchestra for a crackling page turn during a combustible moment near the climax of the piece.
Showbiz.
