Oregon Music News

They came, they played, they conquered. Yes, the Oregon Symphony stunned the audience in its Carnegie Hall debut last night (May 12) with a performance that was outstanding in every way. Led by music director and conductor Carlos Kalmar, the orchestra performed works by Charles Ives, Benjamin Britten, John Adams, and Ralph Vaughan Williams that were tied to the theme of “Music for a Time of War.” This was the same program that the orchestra played and recorded last weekend, and the musicians could have been blasé about doing it again, But taking advantage of Carnegie Hall’s superior acoustic, the orchestra played like it was on fire, and its performance glowed.

It was great to see the entire orchestra on stage. For the first half of the program, I sat on the left side of the hall in the second tier and could easily see all of the musical forces with room to spare. At Carnegie, the acoustic is so lively that coughing in the audience sounds really loud. The orchestra conveyed the unsettling music of Ives’s “The Unanswered Question” so well that it caused some audience members to clear their throats. No matter. The plaintive sound from principle trumpeter Jeffrey Work, the increasingly agitated responses from the flutes, the quiet, assured calm of the strings made this piece compelling and auspicious.

After a brief pause, baritone Sanford Sylvan and the orchestra performed Adams’s “The Wound-Dresser,” which is based on the poetry of Walt Whitman. It was amazing to hear each and every word that Sylvan sang. His voice was so clear and distinct that no one had to refer to the printed program. His top notes were soft but had enough force to cause a slight shudder that conveyed the sensitive text superbly. The orchestra supported his singing with somber conviction, including a glowing horn solo by assistant principal Joseph Berger, and Adams’s music became a soothing balm.

The pounding of the drums at the beginning of Britten’s “Sinfonia da Requiem” caused some members of the audience to reposition themselves. Again, the acoustic of Carnegie Hall could be felt immediately. Everything that the orchestra did was enhanced – the orchestra leaned into phrases more dramatically, the brass rumbled, the flutes and the harp assuaged – so that Britten’s music was even more intense than it was in the Schnitz. Beautiful solo passagework by concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, impressive lyricism of alto saxophonist Kim Reece, and the thoughtful solos of principal bass Frank Diliberto were additional highlights of his performance.

For the second half of the concert, the orchestra played Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 4 as if its life depended on it. The strings played with a sheen that glowed. The brass section was riveting. The woodwinds sang, and the percussion battery incredibly precise. Highlights included principal bassoonist Carin Miller’s wandering lines, principal trombonist Aaron LaVere’s robust blasts, and stunning work by the percussion battery. The orchestra’s super-pianissimo in the first movement really caught the ears of the audience, and I saw some jaws drop. But the absolute wildness and ferocity of sound and virtuosic effort at the end of the piece swept the audience off its feet. The audience responded with cheering, yelling, thunderous applause, and multiple bravos. The orchestra had to stand up four times. Kalmar received one of the biggest cheers of them all. It was a triumph for the orchestra and for Oregon.

Bottom line: the Oregon Symphony may be regional in terms of size and budget, but they are world-class when they play.

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