English horn soloist creates pure beauty
CONCERT REVIEW: Sacramento Chamber Orchestra
October 16, 2003 Concert
By Patricia Beach Smith
Sacramento Bee Arts Critic
Prokofiev: Classical Symphony
Vasks: Concerto for English Horn & Orchestra (area premiere)
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A Major "Italian"
Branko Mihanovic, English Horn
Zvonimir Hacko, Conductor
The short list of masterpieces for English horn just got longer. The area premiere of Peteris Vasks’ surprisingly appealing Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra was a welcome part of the opening program of the Sacramento Chamber orchestra’s 2003-04 season Thursday at the Community Center Theater.
Croatian woodwind soloist Branko Mihanovic came from Zagreb to prove why Vasks’ jewel should be included on the list. Had it not been for Mihanovic’s superb performance, however, the impact of Vasks’ thoughtful, haunting piece might not have been so great.
But as it was, the throaty hum and plaintive pleading of his rich English horn appeared to have convinced the audience that beauty and elegance can come from unusual places.
As Vasks’ piece opened, the low strings slithered over jarring notes as sleigh bells rang in the distance to help create a wintry scene. Soon, the English horn added the melancholy melodic element.
The clear and sweet notes were then punctuated with six-note figures in the woodwinds. As counterpoint to the English horn’s part, more melody appeared in the brass and woodwinds. Percussion added vigor and intensified the musical picture of a bitter cold sleigh ride – perhaps a metaphor for a mind racing during lonely contemplation.
Vasks’ beautifully romantic concerto was played straight through, although it includes musical breaks that change the mood and direction of the composition. About the third of the way through, for instance, there was a sudden pulse of hopefulness – or at least urgency – as the mood changed with a dash of folksy spiritedness.
This section was followed by a short syncopated part where the English horn had to dash through incredible runs and the orchestra expressed itself assertively and majestically under conductor Zvonimir Hacko’s subtle baton.
The succeeding section was all Mihanovic’s after an abrupt, clean cutoff by the orchestra. After that, the section became an unaccompanied English horn tour de force full of more runs, expressive utterances and huge intervals. Mihanovic played them all with compelling sensitivity, intelligence and self-assurance. The audience was obviously awed by the piece de resistance.
The audience also heard the orchestra’s vigorous reading of Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony No. 4 in A, and, to begin the program, Prokofiev’s charming Symphony No. 1 in D, the “Classical” symphony.
The welcome familiarity of both works helped the players sound well-rehearsed and attuned to each other. Also, the brass and woodwinds turned in exemplary playing throughout the evening.The Mendelssohn, in particular, benefited from these attributes as well as disciplined playing. The dynamics and tempos of the piece were handled superbly and only some sloppy string playing and lack of subtlety at the beginning of the second movement marred the experience.
Prokofiev’s “Classical” symphony had a appropriately academic air under Hacko’s able direction.