SEE BUILDING 14 ON CAMPUS MAP FOR LOCATION OF KAUL AUDITORIUM
HANDICAP ACCESSIBILITY FROM 28TH AND BOTSFORD DRIVE
Philosophy was the theme that supposedly linked the three works performed
in Portland Chamber Orchestra's high-spirited concert at Reed College, (Saturday,
January 19, 2008)
Leonard Bernstein's "Serenade" was inspired by Plato's Symposium, Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 22 was nicknamed "The Philosopher," and William Walton's "Facade" sets Edith Sitwell's Dada-influenced poetry to whimsical music. But you didn't have to know anything about philosophy to to enjoy these glittering baubles, whose most significant common element was really geniality.
Walton's 1923 "entertainment," featuring prominent percussion, bubbles with all the fizz of its Jazz Age origins. The nearly two dozen short, stylistically varied baubles perfectly complement Sitwell's dizzy nonsense verse, which was theatrically declaimed by two veteran narrators, KBPS announcer Edmund Stone and ubiquitous local theater maven Mary McDonald Lewis. Unfortunately, from my seat, Stone's recitation was often drowned out by the music, and even Mary Mack's robust, delightfully characterized readings sometimes proved indiscernible. Perhaps they should have used megaphones, as in the original production, instead of microphones.
The absence of the printed
poems from the otherwise informative program added to the frustration. Still,
this was a wonderfully creative multimedia performance, augmented by charmingly
homespun, oversized puppets (ships, hats, birds, and more) playfully wielded
by Portland's Tears of Joy theater troupe, who marched out from behind the
onstage screen for each mini-episode. And the screen itself boasted backlit
images of landscapes and figures appropriate to each text. Both puppets and
projections were suitably abstract enough to contribute to rather than distracting
from the surreal effect of the words and music.
The concert's second half opened with one of the 20th century's finest orchestral works. Bernstein's violin concerto in all but name can challenge even the most expert ensembles. Yet this plucky orchestra and the engaging young Chicago-born soloist, Tai Murray, proved equal to its exposed solos, abrupt dynamic and textural contrasts, and propulsive, shifting rhythms. PCO music director Yaacov Bergman effectively emphasized Bernstein's essentially dramatic approach, and the musicians gave a stirring performance, by turns piquant and tender, that elicited an immediate standing ovation.
After Bernstein's fireworks and Walton's spectacle, Haydn's straightforward early symphony risked anticlimax, but Bergman's historically informed approach -- brisk tempos, prominent horns, harpsichord accompaniment -- brought out all the composer's rustic wit, cheerfully capping an exceptionally ambitious concert.
