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| Photo credit: Oregon Symphony |
Light, crisp, fun, and insightful – with a new twist on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – that in a nutshell describes the Oregon Symphony concert that I heard Thursday night at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Guest conductor Jeannette Sorrell led the concert, which featured three pieces from the Baroque and Classical periods, and she inspired each piece so that the music danced with elan. That included a wonderful performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the amazing mandolin virtuoso, Avi Avital, as soloist – rather than the usual violinist.
Sorrell made her name as a harpsichordist and has thirty
recordings, including many with the Apollo’s Fire, which she founded in 1999.
With that ensemble, Sorrell won the 2019 Grammy for "Best Classical Solo
Vocal Album" with Songs of Orpheus. She has built an impressive
conducting resume, leading orchestras all over the world from the New York
Philharmonic to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Spain).
Using her storytelling talents, Sorrell, spoke to the
audience before each movement of the Vivaldi, painting a picture of each
movement with spot-on-descriptions that were briefly demonstrated by members of
the orchestra. Introducing the first movement, for example, she highlighted the
sound of birds, the brook, lightning, the sleeping shepherd, and the dog
barking (perhaps a poodle or a German shepherd), and each mention was supported
by a few bars of music.
Since the Four Seasons paints a bucolic picture, Sorrell
noted that peasants might played a mandolin, and that served as the segue to
introduce Avital. He then delivered an astonishingly moving and technically
jaw-dropping performance as the soloist. There were a few moments, such as
during the storm, in which the sound of the mandolin could not be heard over
the orchestra. But otherwise, Avital’s playing perfectly enhanced all of the seasons
– eliciting the joy of spring, hazy, lazy summers, a plentiful harvest, and the
cold chill of winter – all of which was complemented superbly by chamber ensemble,
which included a theorbo and Sorrell directing from the harpsichord. s
For an encore, Avital torched the hall with an amazing,
off-the-cuff rendition of Bucimis, a traditional Bulgarian piece. On this YouTube video,
Avital says that the piece has an unusual 15/16 rhythm and that he learned the
piece from an accordion player. It started slowly and quietly, but ended in a
madcap rush that brought down the house.
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| Photo credit: Oregon Symphony |
The second half of the concert kicked off with the Symphony No. 2 of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a renown fencer and composer whose works have languished for a long, long time because of his African heritage. For his Second Symphony, the orchestra added a couple of horns and winds to a contingent of strings, and Sorrell conducted from the podium, encouraging delightful melodic lines to open the piece, transiting to a smooth and slightly slower pace in the middle section, and releasing a spirited, happy-go-lucky mood – with a little humorous pause that suggested Haydn – for the finale.
The concert closed with Sorrell leading the orchestra in a
flat-out gorgeous performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, “Haffner.” From the
outset, the orchestra created excellent dynamic contrasts and the piece danced in
a free-spirited way. The exchange between the oboe and bassoon provided a
subtle highlight and the vivacious Presto with the rolling sound of the
kettledrums added to the thrilling conclusion of the piece.
Sorrell seems to inhibit this music with an extra-special,
innate quality that is just contagious to hear. I hope that she can return to
the Schnitz; so that listeners can benefit from another concert in the near
future. And Avital is a force-of-nature with his extraordinary talent. Hopefully, he will return as well.
