| << Front page | Arts | October 5, 2007 |
Small Orchestra Plays Strong
Shying from implications of chamber music, the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra concert on Sunday, Sept. 30 featured orchestral force. The word �chamber� suggests a small ensemble that performs small-scale works like the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings and Mozart symphonies. But Sunday�s program featured Ginastera�s Piano Concerto no.1, followed by Brahms� Symphony No. 1 � two works that call for full-scale orchestral forces. In any event, �chamber� or not, the orchestra � under the direction of conductor Bridget Michaele Reischl � was in top form, performing with vigorous enthusiasm and tight precision,
a few minor, barely noticeable flubs notwithstanding.
The music began with a gripping start with the Ginastera Piano Concerto, which featured Barbara Nissman as soloist. The first movement of this piece continuously alternates between brusque, loud, rhythmic passages and soft, lyrical ones. The orchestra brought out the contrasts superbly, and Nissman (a Ginastera specialist) handled the fearsome piano part with bravura and eloquence.
The music in the concerto�s two central movements, fine though it is, doesn�t have quite enough expressive variety to effectively contrast with the outer ones; the final movement is a rollercoaster, overflowing with stomping rhythms and virtuosic pyrotechnics. In Nissman�s hands, it brought the house down. As an encore, Nissman offered two dances for solo piano that Ginastera wrote when he was still a student; here, she confirmed not only that she has an intuitive understanding of Ginastera�s music, but also the technique of a god.
The second half of the program was given over to Brahms� much more familiar Symphony No. 1, one of the mainstays of symphonic literature. The introduction of the first movement was forthright, but also a little perfunctory: a slightly slower tempo and sharper dynamic contrasts might have conveyed the mysteriousness of this section more effectively. The movement�s coda, in which the music melts into the major mode and dies away, also sounded a bit earthbound.
But the main Allegro of the symphony was exceptionally well-done. The tempo was vigorous but not hectic, the treatment strongly rhythmic and muscular, the ensemble as tight you could wish for. The Andante began well enough, with the strings sounding warm and sweet, but, overall, this movement was the weak link in the performance. The great, soaring string phrase that immediately follows the first subject lacked lyrical swell and passion, beginning far too loudly: the ensuing oboe and clarinet solos were delivered mechanically, if proficiently; that magical moment when the high strings return serenity to the music after a soft drumroll went for almost nothing.
Things got better toward the end, with the concertmaster sounding lovely in the violin solo. Still, the treatment was too rigid and inflexible to provide the sense of dreamy, post-orgasmic bliss the music cries out for. But the performance quickly recovered in the third movement, which had just the right combination of vigor and lightness. And it was really impossible A Job Well Done: The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra congratulates piano soloist Barbara Nissman. Yuling Chow to imagine a more majestic, uplifting treatment of the finale. The moment in the introduction when, bathed in string tremolos, the first horn intones a long-breathed lyrical phrase is the make-or-break moment of the symphony, because it marks the ultimate triumph of serenity over angst, of major over minor. Reischl and the orchestra clearly understood this; the passage was taken at a broad, majestic tempo, as was the melody of the main Allegro that followed. The speed increased at the second subject, but the all-important sense of triumph was
The music began with a gripping start with the Ginastera Piano Concerto, which featured Barbara Nissman as soloist. The first movement of this piece continuously alternates between brusque, loud, rhythmic passages and soft, lyrical ones. The orchestra brought out the contrasts superbly, and Nissman (a Ginastera specialist) handled the fearsome piano part with bravura and eloquence.
The music in the concerto�s two central movements, fine though it is, doesn�t have quite enough expressive variety to effectively contrast with the outer ones; the final movement is a rollercoaster, overflowing with stomping rhythms and virtuosic pyrotechnics. In Nissman�s hands, it brought the house down. As an encore, Nissman offered two dances for solo piano that Ginastera wrote when he was still a student; here, she confirmed not only that she has an intuitive understanding of Ginastera�s music, but also the technique of a god.
The second half of the program was given over to Brahms� much more familiar Symphony No. 1, one of the mainstays of symphonic literature. The introduction of the first movement was forthright, but also a little perfunctory: a slightly slower tempo and sharper dynamic contrasts might have conveyed the mysteriousness of this section more effectively. The movement�s coda, in which the music melts into the major mode and dies away, also sounded a bit earthbound.
But the main Allegro of the symphony was exceptionally well-done. The tempo was vigorous but not hectic, the treatment strongly rhythmic and muscular, the ensemble as tight you could wish for. The Andante began well enough, with the strings sounding warm and sweet, but, overall, this movement was the weak link in the performance. The great, soaring string phrase that immediately follows the first subject lacked lyrical swell and passion, beginning far too loudly: the ensuing oboe and clarinet solos were delivered mechanically, if proficiently; that magical moment when the high strings return serenity to the music after a soft drumroll went for almost nothing.
Things got better toward the end, with the concertmaster sounding lovely in the violin solo. Still, the treatment was too rigid and inflexible to provide the sense of dreamy, post-orgasmic bliss the music cries out for. But the performance quickly recovered in the third movement, which had just the right combination of vigor and lightness. And it was really impossible A Job Well Done: The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra congratulates piano soloist Barbara Nissman. Yuling Chow to imagine a more majestic, uplifting treatment of the finale. The moment in the introduction when, bathed in string tremolos, the first horn intones a long-breathed lyrical phrase is the make-or-break moment of the symphony, because it marks the ultimate triumph of serenity over angst, of major over minor. Reischl and the orchestra clearly understood this; the passage was taken at a broad, majestic tempo, as was the melody of the main Allegro that followed. The speed increased at the second subject, but the all-important sense of triumph was
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