A nearly full-house greeted the Vancouver Symphony on Sunday, April 12, at Skyview Concert Hall, continuing a very positive trend for the orchestra, which is seeing large and enthusiastic audiences throughout the season. But even better news came at the beginning of the concert, when the orchestra’s Director of Development, Hal Abrams, announced a one-million-dollar commitment from one of its patrons, Martin Wolf. That almost took concertgoers breath away – as they realized that the local band is on an upswing. What a terrific way to begin a concert!
Well, such an announcement might be a tough act to follow, but the Vancouver Symphony went local again – this time with “Légendaire” by Nicole Buetti, who is orchestra’s contrabassoonist. The University of Portland Chamber Orchestra had played an earlier version of this piece, but the VSO and Music Director Salvador Brotons gave a the first ever performance of Buetti’s revised version for full orchestra. She introduced the piece by asking the audience to imagine a cinematic action sequence in which a hot air balloon chases a train, and then told listeners to “enjoy the ride.”
The one-movement piece shifted between a gentle melodic theme and a motoric theme that conveyed the sense of moving forward at a rapid rate. An extended solo for viola changed things up a bit before the pace picked up again, and the entire enterprise came to a sharp and solid ending, perhaps suggesting a violent finale for the train and the hot air balloon.
Next came of the nation’s foremost pianists, Anne-Marie McDermott, who teamed up with the VSO for a scintillating performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The long opening statement from the orchestra set things up perfectly for the soloist with crisp strings and well-balanced brass. McDermott took over expertly, delivering passages with outstanding articulation and dynamics and her extended cadenza sparkled and glowed.
McDermott and the orchestra also excelled with the stately and noble theme of the second movement – although it was interrupted by a squeaky reed at one point. Excellent exchanges between the McDermott and the principal clarinetist Igor Shakhman created the feeling of lightness and elegance.
The mood changed with McDermott leading the way into the final movement with artistry that was simultaneously fiery and witty. Her cleanly articulated playing created a lively dance with the orchestra, and the piece finished with a spirited joy de vivre.
Thunderous applause and an immediate standing ovation brought McDermott back to center stage several times. She graciously responded with an outstanding encore – the Bourres 1 and 2 from Bach’s “English Suite 2 in A minor.” She generated a stunningly delicious blitz of notes that left the audience awestruck, and it was followed by another standing ovation.
After intermission, Brotons and the orchestra gave a solid performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. I may have been sitting too close to the stage in order to get a full sense of the dynamic volume, but it seemed that most of the sonic output was in the medium to loud range. Overall, the sound of the strings continues to improve. The duet between concertmaster Aromi Park and principal hornist Daniel Partridge highlighted the second movement. The horn section played with gusto, and the woodwinds expressed their passages with elan. Some entrances seemed a bit tentative and there’s still a need to crisp things up a bit more, but Brotons and forces got across the finish line in a way that resonated well with the audience, which gave the performance a standing ovation
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