Woodstock Chamber Orchestra—Concert, December 12-14, 2008
One can always recognize a Rossini overture. It begins with some catchy effect, continues to a “pastoral” moment followed by a series of pretty tunes, and ends up with a dramatic chase. Leonard Bernstein followed this form in his Overture to Candide—brilliantly.
There are few better ways to open a concert. And so Woodstock Chamber Orchestra’s director David Leighton chose Rossini’s overture to La Scala di Seta to open last weekend’s performance–the best 3-concert series I have heard the WSO play since my moving to Kingston three years go. The early musical farce it is based on, “The Silken Ladder” (which is, of course, the ladder by which the hero climbs up to his beloved’s window), is a sillier than silly piece of operatic fluff. However, under the excellent direction of Bard-Conservatory Masters-Degree student, Ian Garvie, and with some masterful work from the woodwinds (going at incredible speeds), the work came off excellently.
This was followed by another Bard Conservatory student—Shawn Moore—playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D, and playing it beautifully. The Concerto is a great work, gaining tension from (1) the interplay between the fate-like bass line (think the Fifth Symphony) and the liquidly beautiful solo, (2) the intrusion of strong minor chords in the midst of major-key playing, and (3) a number three-stress rhythmic bits set against regular two- and four-beat tempos. By these means, Beethoven is able to achieve a work that is at once a bit edgy and, at the same time, sublime.
Such a work enhanced by David Leighton’s superlative conducting and Moore’s fine playing, produced a truly moving performance. Moore hit it just right—neither over- nor under-dramatizing the music. He (and the orchestra) were good at all three concerts—probably best at the Bearsville Theater. There, he not only had a podium to play on, he had also changed his student-casual white shirt for a crisper black one. Yes, I know all about attending a concert for the music alone, but, much as I hate to say it, presentation does help and, in this case, helped put the music’s focus where it belonged.
The Woodstock Variations are, more properly, African/African-American variations. Reminiscent of bits of Kurt Weill’s score for Lost in the Stars and containing intervals that remind me of Aaron Copeland, the Variations—a genuinely original work–opens with high held notes in the violins, which suggest both the heat and the broad flat extent of the Cameroon Plateau. As the sun rises over the scene, timpani suggestive of African drums begin and then, the scene shifts into a dance-like melody meant to suggest Ulster County’s famous former slave, Sojouner Truth.
From here on out, other its of African rhythm led to a calmer scene suggestive of evening, which finds final resolution in a clarinet solo that rises gracefully to a final high fifth.
It was a nice piece, but I feel it received somewhat short shrift from the orchestra. The various sections needed to be more clearly defined and signaled, and the internal dynamics of these sections needed more drama. There are great possibilities here, and bravo to Dr. Jackson!
The concert closed with another delightful early-romantic piece, Schubert’s Symphony No. 6. Filled with lovely little melodies and playful dance tunes (from waltzes to foot-stamping farmer dances), the Schubert was a perfect (and very nicely played) finale to a generally first-rate concert.
And the MVP award? No doubt there. It goes to the oboe section (especially first oboists Nicole Golay and Bethany Slater), whose mastery of one difficult solo after another in an oboe-solo-heavy concert was outstanding.
–Sean Renehan, December 22.
