HSO season opens with Copland selections

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra started the 2011 season with a wonderful chamber concert last Sunday, which featured a diverse selection of pieces which ranged from the Baroque to the minimalist.

The performers themselves apparently chose the pieces for the concert, which is perhaps what led to the medley of styles.

The first piece was Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, played by cellist Carolyn Rosinsky with piano accompaniment by Aliyah Sanders.

This was the most “normal” of the pieces in the concert. Though it is a tranquil song, Song Without Words got quite energetic in the middle and adopted a darker tone, before returning to the original theme at the concluscion. The melody was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was a pretty piece that was very well played, and set a good standard for the rest of the concert.

The next piece was the first of the modern pieces. Entitled The Even Chance: Theme and Variations, the music was composed and performed by Justine Koontz, who while presenting it pointed out that she was one of only two living composers featured in the concert. The piece was a flute-clarinet duet and accompanied by piano.

This piece was program music, meaning Koontz set the music to a story which she explained briefly as variations of a sea-shanty melody. The theme was clear throughout all the variations, which seemed to do little but change the mood. It was an interesting exercise, but without motion between the variations, the piece didn’t build up into an interesting whole.

Following this came another oldie, from Bach’s Suite No. 3 in G Major, performed on double-bass by Charles Ermer without any accompaniment.

It was well played, but suffered heavily from the diversity of the program. It came after a more flamboyant piece with technically difficult instrument parts and strong accompaniment, and so the audience’s ears weren’t prepared for the subtle harmony of Bach’s music. The beginning of the piece felt somewhat tentative, and it wasn’t until nearly halfway through the piece that one could really hear it properly.

However, the performer more than made up for it, by following the Bach up with an unexpected addition to the program. He started plucking the strings of the double bass (called pizzicato by the musically inclined), and was soon joined by a fellow double bassist in a jazzy duet that really showed off the range of the instruments and the talent of the performers. It was a pleasant surprise that worked very well.

The next piece was the minimalist Eleven by Jonathan Russell (the latter of the still living composers featured), performed by eleven clarinets and conducted by Russell himself. It was based on a single, short melody, which was repeated multiple times in variation with slight changes that developed over time. For a while it was possible to keep track of those minute differences, but eventually the theme blended into the whirlpool of clarinets and got lost.

The music got quite dissonant at times, which was a bit hard to hear after the Bach. A chamber concert, where the listeners are very close to the performers, can amplify the dissonance and be a bit much.

One particular moment toward the end, when the performers would stop and start every few notes, felt particularly ugly, though that is perhaps the point of this musical exercise. Whatever the point, it was well done and the end was good, with the original theme blending itself back into clarity for the climax.

Following a short intermission, the showpiece was played — Suite from Appalachian Spring by Copland. This was performed by the Hopkins Symphony Chamber Orchestra, which was quite a departure from the smaller ensembles featured beforehand.

The piece was an interesting blend of musical styles, as indeed the whole concert was. It started off with a slow, romantic pastorale, but soon switched gears and became more energetic and chromatic. The suite included many moments of dialogue between the ensemble and individual instruments. This allowed the orchestra to show off its different sections, which were more than ready for the job.

The woodwinds in particular were amazing, pulling off several difficult solos perfectly and, moreover, clearly.

The final moments — a reprisal of the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts — were extremely moving.

The concert’s program may have been somewhat disjointed, but it showed the breadth of the Hopkins Symphony Chamber’s repertoire, proving that they can pull off anything. The performances were very good, and it was a great start to this semester for the orchestra.

The next performance in the series is on Saturday, March 12; the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra plays a free concert at Shriver Hall performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

The piece will be played the following day for a more adult crowd, with the addition of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, and is free for Hopkins students.