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First Metropolitan United Church
October 18, 2013
On first seeing that Friday's concert was to open with a concerto grosso by Corelli followed by an oboe concerto by Pedrollo, my first thought was that the latter must be yet another of those 16th or 17th century Italians, familiar only to James Young.
When I read the concert programme, however, and discovered (for some reason - blame the "dumbing down" effect the first few weeks of classes always have on me - it never occurred to me to simply look the fellow up) that Pedrollo lived from 1878 to 1964 and that his only symphony had brought him fame when conducted by Toscanini, I confess that my heart sank. When it came to 20th century music Toscanini had famously dreadful taste, being notoriously willing to conduct anything written by an Italian and virtually nothing that was not.
I should, though, have had more faith in the good taste of Yariv Aloni: from the opening bars of Pedrollo's Concertino it was clear that this music was really something rather special - as, indeed, was the performance.
The opening movement, redolent of that slightly wistful air to which the oboe is prone, was gentle and melodic - although perhaps not memorably so - with an overall air of the pastoral.
The solo line, in something of a contrast, was lively and busy and brilliantly played by Russell Bajer over the rich, slower-moving string accompaniment.
The second movement was quite lovely and found the orchestra producing some ripe, lush string tone ably supporting the sustained noble cantilena of the soloist.
The finale was a jolly rondo with chirpy soloist and some commendably precise pizzicatos in the accompaniment.
Rarely have my gloomy expectations been so comprehensively confounded.
Given that the concertino was one of Pedrollo's last works, dating from 1960, we actually went backwards in time almost two decades for the next piece, Aaron Copland's Quiet City.
Assembled from the incidental music for a play by Irwin Shaw (which closed after just two performances) it is a surprisingly loud piece for its title - familiarity with the play might go some way to explaining this.
The music is quite clearly Copland, though, and bears most of his compositional fingerprints. It has atmospheric parts for solo trumpet and English horn; David Michaux provided the former with a smooth and impressively warm tone, Bajer the latter with his usual flair.
For me the outstanding aspect of this excellent performance was the eloquent interweaving of the two soloists, although with a less confident and transparent accompaniment, their efforts might have gone for nothing.
The earliest (in both senses) music of the evening was that concerto grosso by Corelli; I was almost taken aback by the resonance and richness of the orchestra's opening chords and the whole performance was lively and stylish, with some terrific interplay between the concertino group - violinists Yasuko Eastman and Sue Innes, cellist Mary Smith and keyboard continuo Shane Beech - and the full ensemble.
Theodore Holdheim's Chaconne provided the latest music of the programme, having been written as recently as 1977. This was clearly a special work for Aloni, who studied with Holdheim. The music, although in 7/8, flowed confidently, and was beautifully contoured, with a most imposing climax.
The closing work was an arrangement for string orchestra (and very sympathetically done it was) by one Wolfgang Hofmann, of five movements from Tchaikovsky's slightly oddly-named suite for piano, The Seasons.
Despite essentially being a "potboiler", i.e. music composed to commission (from Nikolay Bernard, editor of a music magazine) and written mainly for the money, Tchaikovsky simply cannot help being himself and there are some exquisite gems of melody in these miniatures.
Friday's performance was so convincing and the arrangement so good that it was difficult to believe this music was originally written for ten fingers and eighty-eight keys. Aloni directed a performance which was by turns chirpy (March), boisterous and exuberant (February) and weighty (September), among much else.
Perhaps for me the highlight was the snowdrops of April, an echt-Tchaikovskian waltz. Simply gorgeous.
Another rewarding and entertaining evening from Aloni and the Victoria Chamber Orchestra. What would we do without them?
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