Peter Jacobi
Bloomington Herald Times
11/22/2010
The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra gave its Saturday evening concert this promotional title: “A German, a Russian, and a Finn.” As the concert played out at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, promotion turned into the BSO’s conquest of works by composers with those nationalities: the German Beethoven, the Russian Prokofiev and the Finn Sibelius.
Prominently evident these days, when one attends a concert by the BSO, is a feel of increasing comfort, that of the orchestra with its music director, Charles Latshaw, and, in return, Latshaw’s with his musicians. The team produced some astonishingly good sounds Saturday in music far from easy to perform. Not only did one hear cohesive playing from the ensemble, but the solo work done along the way by called-upon members had the stamp of professionalism. Add to that a spirit that seemed to rise and resonate through the spacious atmosphere of the church, and the aural sum of the handiwork was decidedly laudable.
Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture opened the program, a piece meant to reflect in music both heroic and tender the Roman general Coriolanus and his valiant though ultimately failed struggle against evil forces. Despite a few patches of frayed execution in the strings that marred the early-on impact of the score, when the reading was done, the music’s built-in nobility and restlessness had made an impression once again.
There was fun to be had in a delicious, unbridled performance of Prokofiev’s Lt. Kije Suite, music written for a film that was never made about a soldier who never existed. As the tale goes, because higher ups, including the czar, believed Kije was real, government functionaries gave him a birth, romance, wedding, dance and funeral. Prokofiev’s music features thematic escapades realized by inventive and witty uses of instruments, surprising sour notes, and erratic rhythms. Latshaw appeared to relish leading the mayhem, and the musicians followed suit with unabashed vigor.
The Sibelius Symphony Number 1 was first heard in its revised and still used version in the summer of 1900. The music contains now-and-then flourishes that looked forward to the new century, but much of its passion and sweep clung to the previous. There are hints within of Tchaikovsky. But this symphony does not amount to derivative music by any means. Sibelius created melodies and harmonies and orchestration in his own, individual, and Finnish manner. Expositions were developed in sonorities that make one think of expansive northern landscapes, fresh air, atmospheric quiet, and Scandinavian melancholy. As a whole, it exudes beauty and power.
Latshaw and the BSO captured the essences required in grand and lush climaxes as well as in haunting moments of reflective calm. Theirs was a well considered interpretation to which was added an impressive performance.