Review: Oregon Symphony shows French flair with Fliter and Markl

In an evening that sparkled like champagne, the Oregon Symphony transported concertgoers into the French musical realm on April 11th at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with a program that featured works by Camille Saint-Saëns and Maurice Ravel. Guest artist Ingrid Fliter superbly delivered Ravel’s "Piano Concerto in G major" and principal guest conductor Jun Märkl channeled into an awesome innate understanding of Saint-Saëns and Ravel – well, Märkl received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012. The result was a exceptional concert that was life-enhancing from beginning to end.

Ravel’s "Piano Concerto" sparkled and glowed with Argentine pianist Fliter at the keyboard. The propulsive drive of the first movement flowed with energy and with a gemlike articulation that connected so well with the audience that it burst into applause right after the movement concluded. For the slow second movement, Fliter shifted gears and created a continuous stream of lovely and relaxed passages that were imbued with elegance and a wistful quality. Her playing offered a sense of intimacy that was extraordinary, and again listeners responded with heartfelt applause. In the third movement, Fliter upped the tempo, generated shimmering moments, and drove the piece to its joyful conclusion.

Märkl and his forces were totally in sync with Fliter the entire way. The soloist and orchestra maintained a terrific sonic balance so that piano could always be heard – with the melodic line more dominant but never in your face. A highlight of the first movement occurred when the orchestra fashioned a passage that had a blurry, mysterious atmosphere – while Fliter executed numerous runs.

The effusive acclamation for Fliter brought her back to center stage a couple of times, and she responded to the audience’s enthusiasm with a lovely rendition of Scriabin’s Prelude Op. 13, No. 3, which she dedicated to the memory of her parents.

After intermission, Märkl and the orchestra topped things off with a spectacular performance of Ravel’s “Daphnis et Choé.” That was a feast of sonic opulence, even without the optional part for wordless chorus. The huge orchestra included an alto flute in the woodwind section, two harps, a celeste, and a percussion battery stocked up with all sorts of instruments like the wind machine – lined up along the back wall. So the stage at The Schnitz was fairly crowded with musicians.

Conducting the 50-minute-piece from memory, it was remarkable how spry and graceful Märkl’s style is. He gave spot-on cues to individuals and sections throughout the work. His understanding of the music enhanced the story-telling aspect. It was easy to visualize the Greek pastoral romance of the shepherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé, the violence of the pirates abducting Chloé, the ensuing rescue, dawn breaking, and the wild celebration at the end.

Märkl and company sculpted superb dynamics, and a continuous wash of orchestral colors that ebbed and flowed effortlessly. Among the numerous highlights was the silky sound of the strings, the rough dance created by the bassoons and brass, the explosive sforzandos, and sonic glow, creating glorious sunshine that broke through the clouds. Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, principal hornist Jeff Garza, principal flutist Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, and the entire percussion section executed their exposed passages superbly.

To open the concert, the orchestra played Saint-Saëns’ “Le route d’Omphale” (The Spinning Wheel of Omphale), a real gem of that depicts the thread-making of Omphale, legendary queen of ancient Lydia. The strings generated a continuous stream of light and airy sound – but that changed to a slightly dark and menacing tone – hinting at the mythological story of Hercules and some violent goings on. A bubbly exchange between principal clarinetist Mark Dubac and DiDonato Paulsen suggested Hercules and Omphale. The gentle spinning sound near the end of the piece conveyed the idea that things settled down and returned to normal.

I don’t think of Portlanders as particularly in tune with a Francophone sound, but Märkl and company just swept up the audience, which embraced the all-French program wholeheartedly. Among the many excellent concerts this season, this concert had to rank up at – or near – the top.

Today's Birthdays

Federico Mompou (1893-1987)
Mischa Mischakov (1895-1981)
Henry Mancini (1924-1994)
Herbie Mann (1930-2003)
Dusty Springfield (1939-1999)
Stephen Pruslin (1940)
Leo Nucci (1942)
Richard Bradshaw (1944-2007)
Dennis Russell Davis (1944)
Peteris Vasks (1946)

and

John Millington Synge (1871-1909)
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
Merce Cunningham (1919-2009)
Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)
Carol Bly (1930-2007)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758)
Karl Alwin (1891-1945)
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
Sir Neville Marriner (1924-2016)
John Wilbraham (1944-1998)
Michael Kamen (1948-2003)
Lara St. John (1971)

and

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Henry James (1843-1916)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1931, Copland's "A Dance Symphony," was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. This work incorporates material from Copland's 1923 ballet "Grohg," which had not been produced. The symphony was one the winners of the 1929 Victor Talking Machine Company Competition Prize. The judges of the competition decided that none of the submitted works deserved the full $25,000 prize, so they awarded $5000 each to four composers, including Copland, Ernest Bloch, and Louis Gruenberg, and gave $10,000 to Robert Russell Bennett (who had submitted two works).

Today's Birthdays

Jean Fournet (1913-2008)
Paavo Berglund (1929-2012)
Morton Subotnick (1933)
Loretta Lynn (1935-2022)
Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
John Wallace (1949)
Julian Lloyd Webber (1951)
Barbara Bonney (1956)
Mikhail Pletnev (1957)
Jason Lai (1974)

and

Christian Huygens (1629-1695)
Arnold Toynbee (1853-1882)
Anton Wildgans (1881-1932)
Tina Rosenberg (1960)

From the former Writer's Almanac:

It's the legal birthday of the modern printing press, which William Bullock patented on this day in 1863 in Baltimore. His invention was the first rotary printing press to self-feed the paper, print on both sides, and count its own progress — meaning that newspapers, which had until then relied on an operator manually feeding individual sheets of paper into a press, could suddenly increase their publication exponentially.

The Cincinnati Times was likely the very first to use a Bullock press, with the New York Sun installing one soon after. Bullock was installing a press for The Philadelphia Press when he kicked at a mechanism; his foot got caught, his leg was crushed, and he died a few days later during surgery to amputate. His press went on to revolutionize the newspaper business.

Today's Birthdays

Felicien David (1810-1876)
William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875)
Milos Sadlo (1912-2003)
George Barati (1913-1996)
Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021)
Margaret Price (1941-2011)
Della Jones (1946)
Al Green (1946)
Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
Mary Ellen Childs (1959)

and

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1958, American pianist Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the first American to do so.

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Nardini (1722-1793)
Joseph Lanner (1801-1843)
Johnny Dodds (1892-1940)
Lily Pons (1898-1976)
Imogen Holst (1907-1984)
Thomas Hemsley (1927-2013)
Herbert Khaury (aka Tiny Tim) (1932-1996)
Henri Lazarof (1932-2013)
Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018)
Stefan Minde (1936-2015)
Herbie Hancock (1940)
Ernst Kovacic (1943)
Christophe Rousset (1961)

and

Beverly Cleary (1916-2021)
Alan Ayckbourn (1939)
Tom Clancy (1947-2013)
Gary Soto (1952)
Jon Krakauer (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)
Charles Hallé (1819-1895)
Karel Ančerl (1908-1973)
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
Gervase de Peyer (1926-2017)
Kurt Moll (1938-2017)
Arthur Davies (1941)

and

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549)
Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
Mark Strand (1934-2014)
Ellen Goodman (1941)
Dorothy Allison (1949)

From the New Music Box:

On April 11, 1941, Austrian-born composer Arnold Schönberg became an American citizen and officially changed the spelling of his last name to Schoenberg. He would remain in the United States until his death in 1951. Some of his most important compositions, including the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, and the Fourth String Quartet, were composed during his American years.

Today's Birthdays

Michel Corrette (1707-1795)
Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932)
Victor de Sabata (1892-1967)
Fiddlin' Arthur Smith (1891-1971)
Harry Mortimer (1902-1992)
Luigi Alva (1927-2025)
Claude Bolling (1930-2020)
Jorge Mester (1935)
Sarah Leonard (1953)
Lesley Garrett (1955)
Yefim Bronfman (1958)

and

William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911)
Francis Perkins (1880-1965)
David Halberstam (1934-2007)
Paul Theroux (1941)
Norman Dubie (1945)
Anne Lamott (1954)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1868, Brahms's "A German Requiem," was premiered at a Good Friday concert at Bremen Cathedral conducted by the composer.