By Josef Sekon, DMA
Director Maestro Daniel Stewart opened the Symphony’s 59th Season at the Mello Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, October 1 to a SOLD OUT, enthusiastic audience.
He began by elaborating on specific, interesting events regarding the works to be performed, the composers and the history that surrounded them.
The concert Vox Populi (Voice of the People) offered four interesting works opening with Slava! A Political Overture for orchestra (1977) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990); Egmont Overture (1787) by Ludwig van Beethoven (1777-1827); Celestial Dance (1995) by Henry Mallicone and the Symphony No. 5 (1937) by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).
The prominent Soviet cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, “Slava” as Rostropovich was called by his friends, (In Russian, “slava” translates into “glory” and is used as a nickname for those who name has “slava” as part of their name: Miroslav, Dragoslav, Miroslave, etc.) asked his close friend Leonard Bernstein to help initiate his inaugural concert as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and to compose a rousing work for the opening festivities. The World Premiere took place on October 11, 1977 at the Kennedy Center with Rostropovich on the podium.
“Unusual” instruments were employed including the electric guitar and sopranino saxophone. Maestro Stewart captured Bernstein’s erudite personality and allowed his high energy to shine through the many creative, fun to experience musical moments of delightful vaudeville character, and syncopated rhythms to glow in this performance.
Beethoven’s Egmont is set in the dark and somber key of F Minor, a key that Beethoven did not often use. A series of full chords introduced the first theme in which the oboe, clarinet and bassoon performed with great skill. Orchestral balance and counterpoint between the high and low strings was impressive. Following the soft woodwind choral Stewart built the orchestral sound to a staggering climax with the trumpets and timpani and a moment of glory for the piccolo.
The performance of Henry Mollicone’s Celestial Dance is a celebration of his 70th birthday. Celestial Dance was first performed and conducted in 1995 by JoAnn Falletta, a former Santa Cruz Symphony conductor. The orchestral attacks, especially in the impressive melodic string writing were clean and crisp while the overall phrasing was finely polished. The slowly accelerating intensity in the last moments of the work was perfectly realized and in a musical sense, sang of the ongoing miracle of creation and change. The audience responded with a standing ovation.
Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 was composed during the Stalinist purges of 1937. Shostakovich’s life was on the razor’s edge! His mentor was shot, family members disappeared and he was threatened. To be a creative talent living in the Soviet Union in one of history’s most repressive regimes created a dilemma of enormous proportions. Thus, Shostakovich called his Symphony No. 5 “A response to my critics.”
The opening’s somber struggle between cellos and double basses that passes to the brass exposed the political demons and unrest of that time. The effective piano and brass entry that followed and the violin line that played over the cellos slowly repeated rhythmic figure solidified the mood. The second movement opened in the lower strings again, but offered melodic relief with a violin solo. The final movement presented a gradual acceleration of forces fermenting since the onset.
The performance was brilliant as Maestro Stewart congratulated practically each and every member of the orchestra against a thunderous standing ovation in appreciation of this monumental performance.