Thursday, June 22, 2023

Xavier Foley makes the double bass sing in Oregon Symphony concert

Xavier Foley, the newest member of Oregon Symphony’s creative alliance, made a strikingly impressive debut with the orchestra (June 5) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The ultra-talented bassist wowed the audience with two of his own pieces plus Giovanni Bottesini’s Second Double Bass Concerto. The second half of the program surveyed the heavens with Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” appealing extremely well an audience that almost filled the house – due in part to moving the Saturday performance (June 3) to the afternoon because of the Starlight Parade, which was routed through the downtown streets.

For the opening number, “Lost Child,” Foley quickly brought his double-bass to centerstage sans Danzmayr. With the spotlight on him, Foley coaxed a lovely, mellow sound. I could hear tinges of a Latin American rhythm but also slightly jazzy and some Bach-like influences. The brief solo (about three minutes) grew in intensity and boiled over before subsiding to a gentle ending.

Foley returned with the orchestra’s principal second violist, Chien Tan, to play “Justice and Peace,” which featured a string orchestra and four singers (SATB) under the direction of Danzmayr. “Justice and Peace” began with a long introduction by the strings, gradually picking up the tempo and a more rhythmic pulse – all of which was interrupted by a slap of a gavel on a bar stool (executed by violinist Ryan Lee). Foley and Tan responded with a quicksilver duet. Melodic lines from the orchestra were laced over with more speedy fingerwork by Foley and Tan and then broken up by the gavel here and there. The singers overlaid the sound with slave songs, but it was difficult to understand the words, except for “freedom.” A sense of urgency permeated the performance, and its conclusion drew enthusiastic applause from the audience

To switch things up, Foley came back to centerstage to play Giovanni Bottesini’s “Double Bass Concerto No. 2 in B minor.” Foley expressed the piece with committed flair, making each phrase super interesting – from the most delicate lines imaginable to the most demonstrative. He wheeled into the cadenza in the first movement with terrific verve that almost caused a standing ovation. In the lyrical Andante, he touched on a terrific conversation with the orchestra and took time to enjoy the brief, elegant cadenza. For the final Allegro movement, he delivered an array of fireworks that just triggered a cascade of applause from all corners of the house.

Foley’s encore, a wonderful rendition of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 was crystalline and flawless, and again drew a raves from listeners. So, he finally had to reappear next to the podium without his trusty bass to signal an end to his portion of the program.

After intermission, Danzmayr and the orchestra delivered an incisive and evocative performance of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” With Jonathan Greeney and Sergio Carreno pounding on two sets of timpani, the Mars movement unleashed an unrelenting force that sounded like a herd of semis driving over the top of everyone in the hall. The Venus movement calmed everything down with pillowy breezes from the woodwinds, harps, and Jeff Garza’s horn. The strings and sparkly celeste created an enchanting Mercury. The broad British theme expressed in the Jupiter movement was laid into with gusto. Saturn received a thoroughly broody soundscape. Uranus delightfully careered about, accented with boisterous outbursts, and Neptune brought it all to an ethereal close with the voices of women (from the Portland State Chamber Choir and Thorn Choir) singing from offstage – sort of disembodied and, in the last measures, drifting far away.

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