A Mixed Scottish Bag from Canton Symphony Orchestra
By Tom Wachunas
What more
appropriate way to begin a Scottish-themed program than with a live pipe and
drum band? Members of the Celtic Eagle Pipe Band joined the Canton Symphony
Orchestra (CSO) in opening its 2013- 2014 season with Marches and Airs, written by local composer and Music Director of
the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Eric Benjamin.
In his program
notes, Benjamin made no secret of his love for the sound of bagpipes. Addressing the task of effectively blending
the orchestra with the sequence of six traditional Scottish tunes that comprise
the work, he wrote, “As the music exists for pipes and drums alone, the
challenge for me as an arranger was to come up with interesting things for the
orchestra to do so as to contribute something unique to the sequence.”
Not least among
the challenges was to allow the orchestra instruments to be heard against a
loud group of three pipers and two drummers. When the piece began, with
distant, dream-like tones from the bagpipes emanating from the rear of the
auditorium, there was every indication that a pleasing aural blend was
achievable as the orchestra echoed the haunting effect from the stage.
The performance
waxed problematic, however, when the band marched to the very front of the
house to play the remainder of the piece. Here, the famous (or infamous?)
Scottish two-tone pipe wail became an obstacle to hearing the orchestra. To be
fair, there were some audible enough passages wherein the orchestra delivered
genuinely stirring and lush melodic transitions between pipe tunes. But such
moments were short-lived respites from the seemingly incessant off-pitch
piercings of the bagpipes. Notably absent from the overall sound was a counter-
balance that might have been accomplished with elevated sonority from the bass
instruments. Yet for all of that, the performance exuded a type of frenetic
heroism, prompting a portion of the audience to a standing ovation.
Violinist William
Preucil, concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, was the guest soloist for
the second work on the program, Max Bruch’s Scottish
Fantasy. If wizardly technique were the sole measure of perfect playing,
this performance would indeed qualify as a flawless gem. Through all four
movements, the work calls for commanding virtuosity from the soloist in
articulating flurries of arpeggios, sustained trills and crisp
double-stoppings. Preucil met that requirement with astonishing precision and
fluidity.
Largely missing,
though, was the emotional resonance of the folk melodies which inspired the
composer. The prevailing spirit here seemed more intellectual than lyrical. As the sonic temperature of Preucil’s playing
remained somewhat tepid throughout, Maestro Gerhardt Zimmermann kept the
orchestra at a similarly understated level, no doubt to stay balanced with both
Preucil’s soft touch and the important, lovely accompanying solo work from CSO principal harpist Nancy Patterson. As
it was, the performance elicited another standing ovation.
So too the
evening’s final work, Mendelssohn’s magnificent Symphony No. 3, the “Scottish.”
Only this time, the reaction from the
audience seemed more unanimous and palpably electric, surely because the
orchestra had shed all traces of the overly-finessed restraint so apparent in
the previous work.
Mendelssohn’s
compelling and evocative musicality, especially in the drama of the third
movement and vivacious majesty of the finale, provided solid ground from which
the orchestra could truly soar. With impeccable artistry, the CSO demonstrated
the full range of its technical and expressive capabilities. And nowhere in
this remarkable body of musicians are those elements more evident than in the
powerful, refined sonority of the string section. This was the orchestra we came to hear.
PHOTOS (from top):
CSO Music Director Gerhardt Zimmermann; Composer Eric Benjamin; Cleveland
Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil
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