HSO does a full orchestral “Scheherazade”

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra gave its first full orchestra concert of the semester last Sunday, filling up most of Shriver Hall.

Under the baton of Jed Gaylin, the orchestra played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (with Enrico Elisi on the piano) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”

The performance was impeccable and delivered everything audiences have come to expect from the HSO.

Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 5 — known as the “Emperor Concerto” — is Beethoven’s last piano concerto. The concerto lies in between Beethoven’s earlier more traditional music and the more expressive romantic music he wrote later in life.

Elisi’s piano playing was superb: no matter how fast he played, every note sounded clearly and individually.

However, Elisi’s forceful style didn’t always mesh with the smoother, more melodic style in which Gaylin conducted the orchestra.

Furthermore, the front stage right was taken up by the woodwinds and brass instruments, which meant that most of the strings were pushed further back on the stage.

This resulted in a weaker string part in the concerto as they could not always be heard clearly if the brass section or the piano were playing.

In the softer sections, when the piano played sotto voce, the wonderful expressive power of the strings came out and the orchestra blended together beautifully with the soloist.

Luckily, the “Emperor Concerto” has many such soft sections including the sublime second movement, which Gaylin in his introduction to the concerto dedicated to the people of Japan in light of the recent natural disaster.

If the “Emperor Concerto” showed how well the orchestra could function together in the soft movements, “Scheherazade” proved that each section could also fill the room with sound by itself.

Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer, was a late 19th century maestro famous for his creative orchestrations.

His work uses dazzling and unique blends of instruments, which the HSO showed to full advantage to make beautiful music.

“Scheherazade” is a tone poem based on The Arabian Nights stories, translated into a suite consisting of four movements, each one describing a different story in the legend.

“Scheherazade” opened with a short interlude in which all the instruments played together with the musical demarcation of tutti before giving way to lighter textures within the suite.

The melody bounced back and forth, first leading with the woodwinds, then with the lead violinist accompanied by harp.

As the texture gradually thickened as more instruments joined in, each added layer made the theme even richer to the ear.

The second theme was even more distinctive, transitioning to the bassoon for its fantasy theme, followed by a section where the woodwinds were accompanied by the low harmony of the cellos.

The trumpets soon came in with a fanfare, and the brass instruments took the music to darker directions.

They showed off their power as they took the music to a warlike crescendo.

In the third movement the percussion started to shine, accompanying the oboes and then the rest of the woodwinds in a simple, yet fun rhythm.

The simplicity of this movement’s melody only made it more entertaining to see what the different instruments could do with it.

In the fourth movement, however, the music became transcendent as the themes from the previous movements resurfaced.

The percussion section continued to work overtime with incredible power. Together, the orchestra brought the suite to an amazing climax.

A lyrical ending theme tied it all up smoothly, the lead violinist playing an intimate melody, joined by the woodwinds in a tranquil end.

The work was nothing short of downright amazing. The HSO did well to pick a suite that gives each section such an opportunity to shine, both individually and as a whole. Each section rose to the challenge and demonstrated the uniqueness of their respective instruments.

Gaylin went out of his way to point out individual performers during the applause at the end, acknowledging their amazing work independently as well as together.

The strings were a bit hard to hear in the louder parts, but were wonderfully expressive when it mattered, and did just as well accompanying other instruments as carrying the main tune.

The woodwinds and brass instruments were impeccable, bouncing the melodies smoothly between them and gliding in and out of the foreground with ease.

The percussionists were unbelievable, particularly at the end, where they provided much of the climax’s rich texture.

In case you missed them on Sunday, on April 17 the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra will be playing Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

This is a demanding repetoire, but it’s clear that the HSO will more than do it justice.