OAKLAND'S
SYMPHONY: A BREAK AMIDST THE GLOWERING CLOUDS
And a World
Premiere of Latin Strains
By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Feb. 28-March 7, 2010
Vol. 12, No. 70
OAKLAND---I
see a star in a cloudy sky here, which is truly an inspiration.
Oakland
is a city with huge problems, from a very high homicide rate, drug
trafficking,
gangs, absentee leadership, and everything from schools on down
deplorably underfunded. Opera and ballet are precarious,
on-again-off-again affairs.
Perhaps all that feeds on the remaining elements: the three
professional sports
teams, for instance, are cellar-dwellers.
But
in the midst of all the muddle is the undisputed star bright---this
thriving (if not wealthy) symphony orchestra,
a black conductor with colossal music-in-the-schools programs, a
stunning
commissioning initiative, and the best-integrated audiences I’ve run
across in
symphonic America, all turning up in droves to swell the chest of any
board
chair.
I’ll
leave it to others to brainstorm how it is that the
city that does so much wrong does this one part so right. And in light
of the
orchestra’s proximity (14 miles) to the internationally vaunted San Francisco Symphony, a proximity that for
years greatly jeopardized Oakland operations, it’s
doubly miraculous.
The
inspiring Pied Piper is Music Director Michael Morgan,
a humorous, low-key annotator who talks to the fans and takes
effectively to
the podium. And off the podium, as a black maestro he communicates
easily with
the schoolkids, who are overwhelmingly minority.
He
engenders a very enthusiastic following, not just of
music-lovers, but unabashed, receptive fans of the music-making. During
the intermission the
varied audiences get into animated, upbeat discussions in the lobbies.
The
whole process is not a mere audition, but rather a lively experience
and
stimulus.
His major themes attract diversity. Earlier this season,
he had all-Armenian music, with a whole new constituency filling most
of the Paramount
Theatre. And on Feb. 26, an all-American program with a latino world
premiere and
crescendo programming, with the best coming last.
That one would
be the
overtly sassy, jazzy orchestration of Duke Ellington’s
“Harlem”
(1950). The imported side men (close to a dozen in all) and the regular
OEBS symphonists played the
socks off it, with wah-wah mutes, saxes, and a clarinet with attitude,
all
leading to a tumultuous, visceral finale.
The premiere was a welcome
effort by San Franciscan pianist-composer Rebeca Mauleón, an
animated
47-year-old (and sometime flamenco dancer) with high vitality, playing
the
piano surrounded by the orchestra, much as she does with her more
familiar
bands and combos. Her “Suite Afro-Cubano” is a travelogue of many
cultures,
tracing the migration and development of the Afro-Cuban tradition.
There is a
nebulous picture of ancient tribes, with sinuous solos on harp (Natalie
Cox) and oboe (Andrea Plesnarski), initially a bit too square to be
effective. Then a light fantastic through Spain, the
recognizable de Falla signature, and flamenco with guitar-strumming
recreated via the keyboard arpeggios.
The 20-minute
opus in
a congenial pops-concert style picks up momentum with her jazz touches,
syncopation, and a slow Cuban tango, breaking out in an exuberant dance
where the instrumentalists call out an uninhibited “Mambo!” in unison.
Just about the time we
were poised to hop into the aisle for spontaneous dance, it wound down,
unleashing
an exuberant ovation, with many standing (even though this was not your
usual
latino audience). This was a worthy first orchestral effort, better
than some opuses by
veterans that I have heard. Tightening up of the early going with a
musical halo or two would propel the suite much more effectively to
that grand
finale.
Like the
others in
this quartet of commissions, Mauleón came from another
(commercial) world,
never having written for orchestra before. The OEBS provided mentors
for each
new composer to get over initial hurdles. So far, so good!!
The most
exhaustive
catalogue of early-American quotations surely resides in the Symphony
No. 2 (1902)
of the eccentric New Englander Charles Ives, the great innovator of a
century
ago. After about 10 quoted works ranging
from hymns to patriotic songs, you lost count. But this rambling
41-minute piece,
cobbled together with considerably less skill than Ives’ next two
symphonies
(works which definitely warrant performance here, after too long a
hiatus), is
a broad-ranging sampler, culminating in the exuberance of the patriotic
“Columbia,
the Gem of the Ocean.”
Ives was
horribly
neglected in his lifetime, partly because he was no self-promoter,
partly
because he was a CEO, partly because he was modern and different when 19th-century
European music was all the vogue. His symphonies languished 40 to 50
years
before their premiere performances; if the No.
4 is not the great American symphony, it
may come closer to that citation than anything since.
The orchestra
followed Morgan closely, with precision, and the many solos of the
evening were
clipped off beautifully. Morgan is a natural as a conductor, and his
rapport
with both audience and players appears to be nonpareil.
Oakland East Bay Symphony, under Michael Morgan’s baton.
Paramount Theatre, Oakland.
Next: March 19, 21. For info: (510) 444-0801, or go online.
©Paul Hertelendy 2010
#
Paul Hertelendy has been
covering
the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with
relish
-- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never
weakly)
will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local
artists as well.
#
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