Brass, Cellos Help Symphony On Schumann
The South Florida Symphony (one finally has to accept the name change) put on its last concert of the season at the Tennessee Williams Theater. The orchestra, under the direction of founder Sebrina Maria Alfonso, played music by Mozart, Schumann, and the contemporary composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Both the Mozart and Schumann pieces were well played, as one has come to expect from this orchestra.
In the Mozart, the “Haffner” Symphony, Sebrina consistently brought out the characteristic beauty of the composer’s lines. The Schumann, his First Symphony, was slightly marred by a couple of imprecise entrances; its particular virtues were some full chords from the brass section, and some lovely playing by the cellos, including a fine exposed passage by principal Arthur Cook.
The center of the concert, and the most interesting part of it, was a performance, the Florida premier, of the Zwilich piece, “Shadows for Piano and Orchestra,” with Jeffrey Biegel as piano soloist. Designed as an expression of the variety of cultural backgrounds in America, the piece covered a great deal of musical ground, with references to everything from klezmer to the blues. Jeffrey Biegel’s playing was consistently appropriate. He played sensitively at all dynamic levels, with no distortion even at triple forte. Music like this demands a special accuracy of touch and rhythm, or its positive discordant quality will degenerate into mush. Mr. Biegel’s playing had that, and the result was that, varied and complex though it is, the piece made sense.
The Zwilich score featured a complete drum kit. Its owner played with precision and taste, not giving in even for a moment to the temptation, common among drummers, to go bang bang. But his role was not to drive the orchestra but rather to play along with it. My reservations are not to his playing but to the place of percussion generally in orchestral music. The fundamental split between “classical” and popular music, including jazz, is that in the former the rhythm is dictated from in front by a stick, while in the latter it is driven from behind by a drum. Drums, when well played, provide a rhythmic energy which the much more sophisticated orchestral genre rarely achieves. If there is ever to be a true union of the two—and despite many efforts there never has been, though Gershwin was on his way when he died young—it will start from the authority of the drum.
As to the orchestra’s playing in the concert as a whole, two newcomers stood out in the wind section. Lead flutist John Romeri had a clear, attractive sound, and sometimes one could hear in his solo playing a defined character, expressing moods from pensive to jaunty. Lead horn Dan Wions had the best sound I’ve heard from a horn in this orchestra, centered and resonant, and with just the right amount of bite in it. Of particular interest was the strong unison passages with the piano early in the Zwilich.
Lastly, it would be hard to say enough about the playing of the concertmaster, Whitney LaGrange. As she has consistently shown in her other role here, as principal violin in the Blue Door string quartet, she plays everything in front of her, even the technically most difficult passages, expressively and with admirable accuracy. As principal of the violin section, and by extension of the whole orchestra, her playing has the additional virtue of an unusual degree of musical authority, of a kind which makes a strong demand that the rest of the players follow her lead. It’s a rare quality, and invaluable.
Probably the best example was the late Adolph Herseth, for 53 years the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony’s outstanding brass section: His playing was so strong that musicians under him said that they had absolutely no choice but obedience, following the lead his trumpet dictated. We’ve finally become accustomed to women being in high positions, as CEOs and the like. What we rarely see is one in a position of real command, where skilled authority results in true, moment by moment leadership. Very nice when that happens. As here.
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