RSS 2.0 FeedOctober 14, 2009, Classical
Cooking up a sonic storm
Much has been written about Dame Evelyn Glennie. Articles abound reminding us that she is deaf, that she is a woman and that she is a percussionist. Without those qualifiers she is an artist, like any other, making her living playing on the stages of the most famous performance halls in the world. Focus, instead, on the music.
Much has been written about Dame Evelyn Glennie. Articles abound reminding us that she is deaf, that she is a woman and that she is a percussionist. Without those qualifiers she is an artist, like any other, making her living playing on the stages of the most famous performance halls in the world. Focus, instead, on the music.
Opening the Lied Center's classical season in Lawrence, Friday night, the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra launched their U.S tour with an odd mixture of 1940's Brazilian music, a bombastic percussion piece inspired by a 13th century Advent chant and Brahms Symphony No.2 in D Major. If you didn't like what was on the menu, wait 25 minutes for the next course.
The concert opened with an easy to listen to piece, Encantamento by Brazilian composer Camargo Guanieri. Guessing from the liner notes, he is something of an Aaron Copeland to the audiences in Brazil. To these American ears, the piece sounded a lot like, Tico Tico, which was popular with high school band directors in the 1980's. After intermission, the audience was offered the Tres Dancas Brasilieras para Orquestra by Guanieri which swelled with the jazzy south of the border swing of a 1940's Bing Crosby movie soundtrack. 
The percussion section of the orchestra is sometimes affectionately referred to as "the kitchen". Kettle drums cook up rich rhythmic textures; the snare drum adds a snappy bite and metallic and wood tones spike the symphonic punch.
That makes Dame Evelyn Glennie a connoisseur. Wearing a bright blue gown, graying hair falling to her shoulders and feet bare, to feel the vibrations from the floor, she set to work. Glennie is completely at home surrounded by Tam Tams, marimba, xylophone, bongos and an assortment of auxiliary percussion which were placed far upstage near the audience. When she got to work, striking, hammering, pounding and whipping up pitched percussion frenzy, I was glad I wasn't in the front row.
The piece, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel by James MacMillan was atonal and challenging even for this reviewer who loves atonal music, generally. The opening gong and percussion "call" was effective and riveting but 25 minutes of constant, seemingly random percussive accents juxtaposed against the atonal rise and fall of the full orchestra got old and the fact that there was no reference to the original plainchant, O Come O Come Emmanuel until the very end of the piece seemed like an odd compositional choice even by 21 century standards. The piece seemed to reflect a world in chaos awaiting the second coming.
The best part of the piece, for this reviewer, occurred in the last five minutes when Glennie manned the marimba. Her earthy line clearly mimicked the vocal inflection of a confused and desperate human praying for understanding. The Orchestra replied sounding otherworldly and disconnected. That simple and highly effective juxtaposition redeemed the piece. Glennie then quickly ascended to the back of the orchestra accompanied by the tinkling of triangles attached to every music stand for the final blows. A pinkish light cast a larger than life shadow of her majestic profile on the back wall. She struck a version of the chant on the chimes followed by a furious roll that created a sonic Tsunami that washed across the audience for a good 40 seconds. The effect was worth the wait.
The final piece of the evening was The Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Relieved to be back in familiar tonal territory, the patrons seated near me seemed pleased. The playing was professional and the young, ebullient American maestro Kazem Abdullah, seemed proficient. One should keep an eye on his career.
The Brahms has been compared to the Beethoven Pastorale but with less, yanking back and forth between the thematic materials. There is a beautiful smoothness to its character that the strings and horns were able to spread. Difficult as it is to pin point one section or praise one individual, for the piece obviously takes teamwork, the principal horns, Dante Yenque and Ozeas Arantes, rendered their solos with purity and polish.
The most disappointing part of the evening was noticing that the next night, the Orquestra de Sao Paulo would be taking their show to Manhattan, KS to play for K-State audiences. Their program would include a piece by Alberto Nepomuceno, The MacMillan with Glennie, the ever popular Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Bela Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin Op.19: Suite.
REVIEW:
Orquestra de Sao Paulo
Kazem Abdullah, conductor
Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussion
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Lied Center
1600 Stewart Dr. Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online www.lied.ku.edu
Classical, Vocal and Theatre Contributor
Megan Browne Helm grew up singing, dancing and acting. Inspired by Emma Kirkby as a high school student in St. Louis she went on to study voice and sing with the Collegium Musicum at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she also had a radio show of contemporary classical music on WOBC. At the University of Kansas she had the pleasure of working with former Kings’ Singer, Simon Carrington in his Collegium Musicum and Oread consort. Years later, she was a choral fellow at the Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. She is currently singing with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus under the direction of Charles Bruffy.
As a freelance music and culture writer her work can be found on KCMetropolis.org, presentmagazine.com, the Lawrence Journal World, Shawnee Magazine, Leawood Lifestyle Magazine and KC Parent. She was one of 26 journalists in the country chosen as a NEA Institute Fellow for Classical Music and Opera at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Her current interest is how classical music remains relevant through active collaborations with artists in different fields, including science. She also sees a connection between classical music, travel and food as a way to engage all of the senses in a 360 degree cultural experience. She blogs at raworganum.wordpress.com.
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