Deerhunter @ Neumos
When asked why he doesn’t just program Baroque or Classical music for the Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singer concerts, Music Director George Shangrow says “because I don’t just eat Thai food.” Sunday night, the orchestra concluded their 2007-2008 season. Shangrow’s anecdote couldn’t have been truer. Shangrow has garnered a reputation for diverse programs that always feature pieces for chorus and for orchestra. Sunday’s concert was no different. For the finale, Shangrow chose Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the first time the orchestra has ever performed a Mahler symphony; local composer Robert Kechley’s Pslam 100, and Johannes Brahms’ Gypsy Songs for tenor, soprano, chorus and piano.
Shangrow, the orchestra, and the chorus are among the most versatile artists in Seattle and routinely crank out top notch performances of standard repertoire and non-standard repertoire. Last year the orchestra performed a complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos, the group’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah is considered one of the best in the area, but the collective forces are just as at ease playing the music of Britten, Bach, and now Mahler.
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is an elusive piece that seems out of place among the composer’s other symphonies. It avoids an overriding sense of darkness and foreboding in exchange for lighter, visible textures and melodies. It is the final symphony of the composer’s Wunderhorn trilogy and, from start to finish, it is the composer’s most optimistic work.
The symphony’s optimism comes from a first movement that begins with the jangling of sleigh bells and proceeds to weave three separate subjects together; a devilish scherzo which implies the introspection of future symphonies; a slow movement that is among Mahler’s best; and final movement with a soprano singing songs derived from one of Mahler’s favorite sources, Das Knaben Wunderhorn, the “Youth’s Magic Horn.”
In the many decades Orchestra Seattle has been playing as a group, they have never performed a Mahler symphony. I can understand why, the ones with both the orchestra and a chorus are vast and the other, purely orchestral symphonies, are practically concerts unto themselves.
For an orchestra and a conductor who have never tackled Mahler, they demonstrated remarkable sympathy for the composer’s chamber-like orchestration and his fluctuating moods. So much so, I had to ask myself: why the wait? Shangrow should have conducted Mahler years…decades ago.
Each section played well. The overall sound from the orchestra was bright and clean. This helped Shangrow give a lucid presentation of one of Mahler’s most befuddling works. The brass were brilliant and the strings lush, especially the lower strings.
As an interpreter, Shangrow’s is expressive without being indulgent. He gives the music room to grow and convey its point without the embellishments other conductors like to use; especially when it comes to Mahler. Shangrow’s choice was fresh, giving the first and second movements more life than is usually heard. In the fourth movement, the same approach, gave soprano Janeanne Houston space to illuminate the Wunderhorn poems. However, the third movement, a profound and heartfelt adagio, needed sharper contrasts and more heft between the moments of rising tension and the overriding elegiac character of the movement.
In addition to Mahler’s Symphony No.4, Shangrow directed a configuration of Johannes Brahms’ Gypsy Songs for piano, chorus, tenor and soprano and local composer Robert Kechley’s Psalm 100 for orchestra, organ and chorus.
Brahms’ Gypsy Songs have been a part of the Orchestra Seattle’s repertoire since the 1973-1974 season. Shangrow’s recent presentation was an arrangement of the songs for chorus, tenor, soprano and piano. Seattle pianist Mark Salman, tenor Stephen Wall and soprano Janeanne Houston joined Shangrow on stage. The combined forces gave the songs sparkle and energy characteristic of their gypsy roots.
Kechley’s Psalm 100 was composed in 1999 on a commission from Bethany Lutheran Church. At that time, the setting was for organ and chorus only. On the occasion of Orchestra Seattle’s 2000 gala at Benaroya Hall, the composer revised the work, adding an orchestra. The work was revised again and Orchestra Seattle’s recent performance of the piece was the first performance of the revised version.
Talking about the piece, Shangrow joked Pslam 100 was a study in “how to write a festival anthem.” The piece starts with a phrase in the low strings. The murmuring in the basses and cellos is followed, section by section, by the rest of the orchestra. The build up culminates in the organ announcing itself. The dense, regal instrumental build up predicts the text of Psalm 100 to be sung by the chorus. When the chorus does enter, singing the “Psalm for Giving Thanks,” later announcing “serve the Lord with gladness,” each word is imbued with a purpose greater than the plain meaning of the text. Each line of the psalm was met with waves of celebratory music. After alternating between periods of agitation, relative calm, and virtuosic moments for the organ and other players, the piece ends with everyone playing and the chorus singing “For the Lord is good…”
During the season which concluded this past Sunday, Shangrow and Orchestra Seattle demonstrated once again why they are one of the most adventurous orchestras in town. Shangrow could have pulled out one big, different piece, like Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers (which was played in December 2007). But, Shangrow programmed Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s War Requiem, Haydn’s the Seasons, Bach’s Actus Tragicus cantata, and of course Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. The orchestra’s performance of their first Mahler symphony was indicative of the high quality Orchestra Seattle is capable of. Not only is Mahler generally a test for orchestra and conductor but unraveling the composer’s fourth can be elusive. On Sunday, Shangrow and his orchestra met the challenge, and demonstrated to listeners once again they can expect fine performances to match the orchestra’s adventurous programs.
Photo courtesy John Cornicello