SPRINGFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Franck
Saturday -- April 10, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Kevin Rhodes, Music Director and Conductor
Jeffrey Biegel, Piano
"Our next concert has unbelievably great music, when the world’s favorite Tchaikovsky concerto teams up with Bugs Bunny (Rossini's Semiramide Overture) and the great romantic French Symphony by Franck, for an evening of tunes you'll go out humming. For an in-depth discussion and sampling of the concert, be sure to listen to my podcast."
Kevin Rhodes
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SPECIAL COMMENT
At Friday noon's Concert Preview, I joined the lunch bunch and was treated to
an hour of excerpts from Saturday's totally captivating program.
Donna Bailey-Thompson
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MORE
Just because this computer went down for days doesn't mean that
the rest of the world went on hiatus. Translation: a full review
of a music-saturated weekend is in the works.
DBT
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VOILA!
SS0 GENERATES AN EMOTIONAL BINGE -- In Two Parts
Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson
Part One
Friday Lunchtime Concert
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s program was a metaphor for a big time emotional binge that lay in waiting during the low-keyed resumption – thanks to generous gifts from SSO champions – of the Friday Lunchtime Concerts. (For more information, see the Afterword that follows this review.) Music lovers enjoyed their own picnics or pre-ordered boxed lunches in the Mahogany Room between 11 and noon.
By 12:30 PM, the musicians (dressed in relaxed Friday garb) were ready to respond to Music Director and Conductor Kevin Rhodes for an hour of excerpts from Saturday evening’s program. But first, Mayor Dominick J. Sarno enumerated reasons for Springfield’s pride in its first-rate orchestra before proclaiming April 9, 2010 as Springfield Symphony Orchestra Day. The bottom line, in the full sense of that expression, is that in spite of these financially challenging times, appreciation of Rhodes’ musical leadership inspires giving from a cross section of a loyal and grateful audience.
And then, without more further ado, the Maestro stepped onto the podium, picked up the baton, raised his arms, gauged when the orchestra was ready, and signaled the beginning of Rossini’s Semiramide Overture. Rossini took only 33 days to write the opera, and just a matter of hours to compose the overture; the tempo reflected the speed that propelled its creation – breakanechio. Off to the races! Wake up! Mellow horns of the French persuasion -- a creamy roux – momentarily soothed followed by pockets of stringed playfulness that Rhodes zoned in on with delicate hand movements dotted by precision-honed exclamation finger points. Spared the visual histrionics of the opera’s derring-do and deathly drama, the overture imparted stirring, benign adventures.
Wild guess: the audience’s psychic energy level doubled.
Piano soloist Jeffrey Biegel, scheduled to play Tchaikovsky’s universally loved Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, joined Rhodes on stage. Rhodes’ fondness for Tchaikovsky is an open secret; indeed, his affection includes many Russian composers. For the noontime audience, Biegel whet appetites for experiencing the glory of the full concerto by playing sections of the three movements.
I was excited because I’d not heard this magnificent concerto in some time. The familiarity of the opening, the orchestra’s repetition of four notes, my serenity was a tad edgy. Within a matter of seconds, at the moment Biegel crashed the first chord, I was ready to sob. I spent the next several minutes suppressing convulsive weeping. What was going on? Ahhh....I had been transported back to high school, preparing piano pieces for competition (not the concerto!) one of the happiest times of my life. Fragments of a favorite poem swam into my consciousness:
Familiar, what was strange;
Old, what was new,
It is a thrush’s song – sweet, but not long,
Repeated without change.
MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS by JAN STRUTHER
Once I connected with the memories, the pressure to cry subsided and I, along with an attentive audience, savored the music.
Rhodes’ comments about the final selection, Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor, focused on the spooky, mysterious moods of the first movement, as well as “the good tunes” and what was shocking at the time, the inclusion of an English horn solo. Harrumph! I say, ole chap, that’s just not done. The militant excerpt from the last movement, the repetitious phrases, the vibrant finale, gave the lunch bunch many reasons to applaud. And something else for my musically alert emotions to chew on – the overall effect of Franck’s symphony.
AFTERWORD
Friday Noon Concerts
Following a hiatus dictated by the economy, Thomas Creed, President of the SSO was pleased to announce the Friday Noon Concerts will not only round out this season’s programming (April 30) but are in the 2010–2011 budget thanks to the Lunchtime Consortium comprised of a group of businesses and the stimulation of an anonymous donor’s significant gift.
To purchase a $7 boxed lunch prepared by Big Y World Class Markets, call the SSO Box Office by Wednesday, April 28, at 413-733-2291; or, log on to www.SpringfieldSymphony.org
Participants in the Lunchtime Consortium are The Bank of Western Massachusetts; a division of People’s United Bank; Disability Management Service, Inc.; Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy P.C.; Judith A. Roberts; Eleanor Murphy; the Lathrop Communities; Sapirstein & Sapirstein, P.C.; and Shatz, Schwartz & Fenton, P.C.
Part Two
SSO'S SATURDAY NIGHT CONCERT
Pre-Concert Talk
The pre-concert conversation was enlightening because Music Director Kevin Rhodes and Guest Soloist, pianist Jeffrey Biegel talked shop about the upcoming world premiere of William Bolcom’s “Prometheus” (by Lord Byron) for piano (Biegel), orchestra (Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Orange County) and chorus (Pacific Chorale), November 18-20, 2010. According to Biegel, the premiere “will kick off a nine member consortium project through 2012.”
Rather than try to describe the darkness of some of the chords, Biegel demonstrated the discordant sound created by striking a chord with the left hand in a minor key and with the right hand, a major key. That be dark, really ominous. And, fascinating.
William Bolcom (born 1938) is an American composer of chamber, operatic, vocal, choral, cabaret, ragtime and symphonic music. He was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America; honored with multiple Grammy Awards for the setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. In 1988 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano.
So what? So, conforming within a structured niche to only one type of music has not been the norm for decades. Rhodes is at one with what is lumped together as classical music, with opera and ballet, high-end popular music (e.g., Rhapsody in Blue), and more. Of special importance is the obvious: he loves music.
The rapport and friendship developed over the years with Jeffrey Biegel made it possible for Rhodes to good-naturedly kick him off the stage because “I want to talk with the audience about the Franck symphony.”
He spoke of how carefully the Symphony in D minor is constructed, how the themes are changed around (cyclical form), an earlier theme refers in a transformative way. “Franck deconstructs a theme.” Even if one stands still, the theme returns. Further, he pointed out that because the symphony has three movements instead of the usual four, “You’ll all get home in time for Saturday Night Live. No problem.” Eclectic: thy name is Kevin.
The Program
The arrival and seating of the audience followed the familiar movements of the pre-concert ballet ritual: with smiles, nods and bows, they wended their way to the destination imprinted on their tickets. The entrance of concertmaster Masako Yanagita, greeted with warm applause, was followed after just the right number of beats by the Maestro, ready to burst with energy to match the burst of applause. And the concert began.
The horsepower within Rossini’s Semiramide Overture had not lost any of its vigor since the Friday noon concert. Rhodes’ agile synchronization with the variety of tempi reminded me of an internationally celebrated traffic cop at a busy Provincetown intersection. The musician’s response was as immediate and constant as the audience’s attention. That Overture is a grabber.
I did not try to gauge the audience’s anticipation of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor because I was too focused on myself: would the piece make me go to pieces? My reaction to the first series of enormous chords was within acceptable bounds – stretched bounds but nowhere near ready to snap. I was intrigued by Biegel’s control of his physical strength, how he could power back gradually or immediately, his dexterity at any tempo, the clarity of his touch, the passion of his playing, the orchestra’s marriage with the soloist’s interpretations, and throughout this diabolically
demanding piece was Rhodes, exercising the correct amount of discipline and innuendo, honoring the composer’s soaring emotional score – oh, those interminable crescendos! – preventing the musicians from being spun off into space while our spirits were flooded with the beauty of the music. How caught up was I? So much that at the end of the first movement, I who know better, applauded, involuntarily. Amazing.
Of course Tchaikovsky’s score reflects his thoughts and feelings; we know enough about his life to appreciate the anguish he lived with and from his music to speculate he both imagined and savored serenity.
The second and third movements demonstrated that the technique Biegel employed during the first was not a fluke. Clear, never muddy (in spite of generous pedaling), emotional phrasing that was never sloppy. A total triumph. The spontaneity of Rhodes and Biegel’s bear hug verified they knew the concerto was as total a package as any soloist and orchestra could possibly achieve.
Following the final movement, Biegel responded to the standing ovation that would not stop by returning to the piano to play a piece that I described in my notes as “Ripples. April rain” which was not far from its actual title (I learned later: “Spring Night” by Schumann. Biegel’s choice was perfect – delicate, intricate, less than three minutes – just long and involved enough to let our feet re-connect with the floor.
Franck’s Symphony in D minor was an inspired choice to follow the Tchaikovsky. The myriad moods – dark, mysterious, spooky, yes, Rhodes’ words – as were the woods I imagined – mossy, dank, shy lady slippers, mushrooms and toadstools – and then a gentle English horn. During the second movement, there were mini echoes of the plucked strings; a pensive, reflective mood – what was Franck thinking about? The theme variations deepened the mystery. During the third, I wrote what looks like “on the attack” which may refer to the congregating of many themes. Which one would prevail? To bring a crescendo to its goal – climbing, climbing, then pausing, before climbing again -- Maestro Rhodes cajoled the orchestra, driving them to inject more and more of themselves into the relentless needs of the crescendo, until for a split second, his feet left the podium and the crescendo made its mark. The chosen theme crested. The musicians and its conductor were united. I was so intrigued by the effect of the symphony’s construction, the layering of melodies, that I sat still for a long time. No matter. There was still plenty of time to become part of the standing ovation.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Rhodes on Camera
For almost four hours on Monday afternoon, Kevin Rhodes, flanked by a couple dozen supportive volunteers,
filmed six pod casts promoting next season’s concerts.
There’s more to building a dynamic orchestra than waving a baton. Much more.
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