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First Metropolitan United Church
February 17, 2012
It would be natural to assume that once a piece of music has been published it is readily available thereafter. That this is not necessarily the case was evidenced by the stories behind three of the four works performed in Friday's exceptionally interesting Victoria Chamber Orchestra concert.
Take, for example, the final work on the programme, Nikolai Mayaskovky's Sinfonietta No.2 in A minor.
Mayaskovsky figures large in any account of music in the Soviet Union, yet the Soviet publisher of his music has long disappeared; the only recent performance of the Sinfonietta turns out to have been played from error-ridden handwritten parts.
However, the conductor of that performance had a friend who had recently edited the score and that was made available for us to hear on Friday - if not the North American premiere, then surely the first performance in many years.
In this, as in the hunting down of complete scores for the Glazunov and Turina works, the efforts of librarian Charles Encell cannot go unrecognised.
The Mayaskovsky is an attractive work and the music has a rural feel, in distinct contrast with his younger contemporary Shostakovich.
The first movement is unusual in that has a fast introduction before getting progressively slower. That peremptory opening gesture was very dramatic and the gradual increase of intensity in the solemn music which followed most impressive, with the players really digging in and producing a solid, weighty tone.
The charming second movement brought that bucolic side of the composer to the fore and the close was quite delightful. The lively finale featured some lovely textures from violas, divisi cellos and basses; the transitions from quadruple to triple time and back were most deftly handled.
A fine performance of some far-from-easy music.
Joaquin Turina's La Oración del Torero (The Bullfighter's Prayer) was apparently one of the composer's most popular works in his native Spain in the 1920s and 30s.
Once again the music proved tricky to track down; once again the efforts proved more than worthwhile. The music is far more volatile than the title suggests and the many, and frequent, changes of tempo and mood were beautifully managed.
Turina's rich, chromatic harmonies occasionally put me in mind of Delius, but the whole undoubtedly had a character all of its own and was very well played from the rapid motion of the introduction, with its excellent crescendo, to the final, ethereal chord.
Alexander Glazunov's Theme and Variations was another revelation in miniature. The echt-Russian theme was played to the hilt by the orchestra. While there were occasional hints of Brahms (especially in the penultimate variation) and perhaps nothing individual enough to call authentically Glazunovian (sorry), the music was decidedly attractive and the performance one to cast the composer in a new light.
The one composer of the evening whose music did not involve world-wide searches was Nicholas Fairbank, who was, in fact, present to hear the first complete performance of his Suite for Strings.
The six movements all have traditional dance titles and much of the music is influenced by and/or in homage to the music of the 18th century.
The prelude opens with a dramatic passage, rhythmically very tricky and it must be admitted that there was a little confusion in the playing. Matters soon improved as the musicians gained in confidence.
The delicious second movement gavotte had a lurching theme which sounded rather like the attempts of a myopic (or possibly bibulous) player attempting to sight-read the corresponding movement from the sixth cello suite by Bach.
There followed a sarcastic fugue, with nicely delineated lines, and a bouncy fourth movement (I seem to have mislaid my programme).
The emotional heart of the piece, though, is surely the fifth movement pavane; it serves the same function as the Sentimental Sarabande in Britten's Simple Symphony and shares that music's lyrical density. It was played beautifully and stands out, even in a fine evening's music-making, as something special.
The final, highly syncopated, hornpipe suddenly burst into the most familiar of all hornpipe melodies. For some it may summon up memories of Popeye, the Sailor. For anyone brought up in Britain, the irresistible image is of the audience of the Last Night of the Proms, trying (and failing) to keep up with the BBC Symphony Orchestra's constant accelerando in Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, a work which has been played at the last night of every season since 1066 - or so it seems.
Fairbank seemed very pleased with the performance - as did the audience.
Even if they restricted their efforts to the tried-and-trusted repertoire, Yariv Aloni and the Victoria Chamber Orchestra would be a force to be reckoned with.
But to put their skills and considerable musicianship to the services of such out-of-the-way pieces (and to premieres by local composers) makes them very special indeed.
Long may they flourish.
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