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| Photo by Beverly Standish |
Camerata PYP, a string ensemble drawn from the Portland Youth Philharmonic, performed a top-notch concert at Rise Church in Tigard (January 6). The concert offered a wide variety of pieces by Efraín Amaya, Julius Chajes, Josef Suk, Polina Nazaykinskaya, Herbert Howells, Felix Mendelssohn, and Deena Grossman, whose “Songs of the River Po,” received its world premiere. The breath of music and technical veracity in the program aptly showed off the talents of the ensemble, which was founded in 2009 by PYP’s musical director, David Hattner, who conducted all of the pieces.
The concerts kicked off with “Angelica,” by Venezuelan-born composer Efraín Amaya. It had an energetic, forceful rhythm that Hattner easily elicited from the orchestra. A fugato section circulated enticingly from section to section with an underlying cha-cha-cha pattern that came to an extended pause with the cellos sustaining the last note until the entire ensemble rejoined. The piece returned to the initial theme with the violins overlaying a new melodic line before closing with panache
Next came Julius Chajes’ “Israeli Melodies,” a suite of six pieces that was inspired by the music of Palestine when the composer moved there in the 1930s from his native Poland because of the Nazis. Each piece, poetically called songs (e.g., “Song of the Well,” “Song of the Pioneers,” and “Song of the Night”) featured a poignant melodic line with some heavier with a slower tempo and others lighter with a slightly faster tempo. The “Song of Galilee” offered an intertwined texture of lovely tunes that wrapped up the piece nicely.
Joseph Suk’s “Meditation on the Old Czech Choral ‘St. Wenceslas’” received a solid performance by the ensemble. It featured tender and high passages that the violins deftly expressed. The final meditation became more agitated before subsiding with the violas leading their colleagues to soothing conclusion and the double-basses getting the last word.
Portland-based composer Deena Grossman lived for a couple of months in Turin, Italy before the pandemic hit. During that time, she enjoyed listening and absorbing the sounds and scenes along the Po River, which flows through the city. Inspired by her experience there, she wrote “Songs of the River Po,” which she divided into three movements. The first opened with a joyful march that gradually transitioned to sounds of flowing water with the upper strings soaring above the sensation of waves from the lower strings. The second movement featured wonderfully deep phrases from the cellos and a rich tapestry of melodic lines that were exchanged by the sections of the orchestra. The third movement offered beguiling lighter passages that evoked the image of birds enjoying the river, and it brought the piece to a satisfying close.
After intermission, ten violinists from Camerata PYP took center stage for “The Rising” by Russian-American composer Polina Nazaykinskaya. Much like Mendelssohn’s “Octet,” Nazaykinskaya’s piece offered an intricate and lively soundscape with harmonic lines that shimmered around a central melody. At first the shimmering sounds overpowered the main melodic line, but the ensemble quieted down and then we heard an intoxicating sequence of passages that climbed heavenward, creating a terrific ending.
Next, the Camerata PYP performed Herbert Howells “Elegy for Viola, String Quartet and String Orchestra” with Elijah Zacharia, who was the runner-up in the PYP Concerto Competition, as the featured soloist. Zacharia played with great sensitivity to give the piece a plaintive and soulful character. He was expertly augmented by violinists Claire Youn and Timothy Lee, violist Luke d’Silva, and cellist Sarah Lee.
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| Photo by Rachel Hadiashar |
Things kicked up a couple of notches with the “Sinfonia No. 10” by Mendelssohn, who wrote the piece when he was fourteen years old. The orchestra excelled with their crescendos and decrescendos – at one point deftly fashioning ascending phrases that whispered along – before turning on the afterburners to finish the piece with gusto.
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| Photo by Rachel Hadiashar |
As an encore, the orchestra had a blast playing Leroy Andersons’ “Plink, Plank, Plunk!” In fact, the bass section, led by Margaret Carter, made some of the loudest snapping sounds I’ve ever heard.
Hattner and the Camerata PYP deserve high marks for polishing off a varied and demanding program that included a world premiere. It makes me wonder what they will do next time to top that!
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| David Hattner and Deena Grossman | Photo by Rachel Hadiashar |
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