Bach Meets Bond and More

From the Vault Dept.: Again asking myself what I was doing forty years, I discovered that, beyond not truly wishing to know, I’d been to two quite different area concerts, the reviews of which follow.

                                                                                    

“WHAT’S THE POINT OF COUNTERPOINT?” is the question asked by a new work for narrator and orchestra by Victoria Bond, music director of the Empire State Youth Orchestra. The piece had its world premiere in a concert Saturday afternoon at the Egg at Albany’s Empire State Plaza with the combined forces of the ESYO and Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath. While it may not achieve a “Peter and the Wolf” height of popularity, it certainly addresses a most difficult musicological question with considered insight.

Victoria Bond

With the wealth of music by Bach and Handel being performed, this year, we’re surrounded by some of the finest examples of counterpoint ever written. It is so complicated a subject, however, that to appreciate all of the mathematical permutations going on in, say, Bach’s “Art of the Fugue” requires the acumen of a well-trained composer. It’s nice to have some kind of introduction to it, and the Bond piece could serve the needs of listeners of all ages. Its construction is as a children’s tale: the protagonist, a tune, is looking for a friend. Tune is befriended by a bird, which takes him on a tour of the cities of Rhythm and Harmony before discovering the tent where the city of Counterpoint is headquartered, and being treated to a display, rendered with a likening to acrobatics, of part of the “Art of the Fugue.” 

It’s an impressive journey in terms of musical sophistication; what’s lacking is the kind of life-threatening conflict which tends to be the stuff of children’s tales. The narration, which McGrath performed with an impressive array of voice characterizations, was accompanied almost constantly by Bond’s music, which improved dramatically as the piece went on. The opening was given over to a too-cute syncopation which, given the skill displayed later in the score, wasn’t really necessary. However, Bond is to be congratulated and then some for providing youthful audiences with a text which never attempts to talk down to them.

The programming for the rest of the concert also deserves high praise: Samuel Barber’s “Second Essay for Orchestra” was the opener, relying more on orchestral texture than accessible melody to make its point; following the intermission, ESYO percussionist Thomas Enokian played the difficult marimba part in Alan Hovhaness’s delightful “Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints.” It was a virtuoso performance which well deserved the enthusiastic response.

A suite from Bizet’s “Carmen” concluded the concert: not only did it provide some familiar music, it also gave many members of the orchestra a chance to shine in a succession of brief solos. Listen to this orchestra with your eyes closed and you won’t believe the players are as young as they are. If they keep up this kind of quality work, it shouldn’t be long before they’re nipping at the pants of the more elderly area groups.

– Schenectady Gazette, 22 April 1985

                                                                                       

The Albany Symphony: Barber and Borden and More

IF TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 were a movie, it would star Susan Hayward. The piece holds no emotion in restraint, and the love1iness of it is draped in melancholy. During Friday evening’s concert by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra, under the direction of Julius Hegyi, and the soloist, Christopher O’Reilly, chose to linger over the work as you might pause over a rich dessert.

Morton Gould

Hegyi and the ASO have had problems in the past in role of concerto accompanist, chiefly in matching tempos and dynamics. With the Tchaikovsky piece, however, conductor and soloist worked together splendidly. They began the familiar opening much slower than it often is played, although this denied O’Reilly none of the sparkle in the virtuoso passages. He has an especially fine technique coupled with the ability to accommodate the moods, many and various, of the concerto. 

In the second movement, again started very slowly, he demonstrated his ability to sing with passion. The finale is a fingerbuster all the way, and it brought the audience at the Troy Music Hall to its feet.

The concert began with another 19th-century work: George Frederick Bristow’s overture to “The Great Republic,” a cantata premiered in 1879. The overture sounded much like the music of Arthur Sullivan, with much bombast accorded to weak little themes. At times it seemed to be a study in just how loud and stirring an orchestra can get without really having anything to say. lt was well played and certainly was an effective concert-starter.

Morton Gould’s “Fall River Legend” is a ballet score written for Agnes deMille in 1947, describing the Lizzie Borden case. The composer extracted material for a six-movement suite which was first performed in 1952 and which closed the first half of the ASO concert. Much of Gould’s inspiration came from period dances and hymns of New England, and the flavor of that shone through. The orchestration has an American flavor which immediately is associated with Aaron Copland, although Gould himself should be recognized for his strong compositional voice.

The Albany Symphony seems to do its best in scores with a lot of romantic sweep, and the  performance was first-class. In keeping with the subject matter, Gould ended the suite with a stark dirge, the conclusion of which took the audience by surprise: they had to be coaxed to clap, which they then did with vigor

– Schenectady Gazette, 22 April 1985