Monday, December 5, 2022

Portland Youth Philharmonic opens 99th season with two world premieres


The Portland Youth Philharmonic opened its 99th season at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (November 12) with a fanciful program that reflected Persian, American, Mexican, and Czech cultures. The performance included two world premieres by Farhad Poupel, an Iranian composer who is based in the United Kingdom, and American composer Bruce Stark. Playing two brand-new works is a real feather in the cap for this superb youth orchestra and its music director David Hattner, who led all of the works on the program.

The orchestra opened the concert with the world premiere of Poupel’s “Childhood Memories” (Persian Suite). Its first movement contained an easygoing melody with the trumpets circulating an arc of sound, and a sequence of grand chords brought it to an emphatic close. The second movement had an enticing middle-eastern flavor. The English horn accompanied by pizzicatos from the strings generated a mellifluous theme that transitioned to the oboe. A lovely flute solo led back to the initial melody and the entire orchestra joined in. The third movement contained a clarinet solo, a dance-like tune that featured the concertmaster and the principal cellist, and a smooth trombone solo before winding up with a big melodic theme. The audience reacted with cheers and vigorous applause.

While the stage was reset for Bruce Stark’s “Variations for Piano and Strings,” the orchestra’s music director David Hattner discussed the piece with Stark and pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner from the balcony just behind the stage. That was an excellent way to keep the audience’s attention and introduce the composer and soloist.

As Stark stated in the program notes, his “Variations for Piano and Strings,” which received its world premiere in this performance, is not a piano concerto, but rather a piece that involves the solo instrument and the strings in a mutually expressive way. It offered a colorful splash and moved forward with propulsive rhythmic patterns. In at least one segment, the violins employed extended techniques with high sliding sounds. Sanchez-Werner deftly exchanged melodic threads with the strings. Some passages featured pizzicatos that were accompanied by the pianist to create a spikey commentary. Concertmaster Katie Liu excelled in some tricky exposed passages. A bouncy section reminded me of Prokofiev’s style, and a mysterioso passages was complemented by Sanchez-Werner with a delicate chime-like tones. The last variation surged to the finale and drew the piece to a satisfying close.

After intermission, Sanchez-Werner and the orchestra performed the “Balada Mexicana” by Manuel Ponce. The orchestra got a tad too loud initially and that made it difficult to hear the piano except when it was in the upper register. Sanchez-Werner excelled with the cadenza, which had some tender moments but changed to a highly-romantic, Liszt-like phrases. Later, tremolos from the violins accompanied the piano expertly, and they were swept into an expansive, lush passage. Another cadenza by Sanchez-Werner started with an enigmatic mood that transitioned into another robust Liszt-ian workout, and the piece concluded robustly.

The audience responded to Balada Mexicana enthusiastically, and Sanchez-Werner returned to play a Chopin nocturne that changed from stately to triumphant before subsiding to a quiet ending.

Antonín Dvořák's “Symphonic Variations” received inspired playing by the orchestra with excellent ensemble work in the fast passages and outstanding dynamic shaping to keep the piece moving forward. Lots of fine contributions by principals of the orchestra highlighted the performance. The boisterous variations involving the brass and playful exchanges with the horns made the strong impressions. The fugue-like variation at the end of the piece was etched with terrific shading of the dynamics.

One of the cool things about the PYP is that its musicians write eloquently about the pieces that they play in the program notes. The orchestra also allows one of its own to introduce the concert before the first note is played. For this concert, co-principal trombonist Clara Cywiniski showed superb poise with her succinct and genuine remarks. Ergo, kudos to PYP. The orchestra is a class act from top to bottom.

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