HRO Does the Airplane for Dr. Yannatos

It was the beginning of the end of an institution on Friday night as James Yannatos stepped to the podium for the opening concert of his 45th and final season as music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO). If Yannatos is mourning his departure, however, he is not doing so through his selection of music. His choices pulsed with emphatic joy and were delivered with conviction by his orchestra.

The evening began with a premiere of Carson Cooman’s “Flying Machine,” an HRO commission dedicated to Yannatos in celebration of his commitment to HRO as well as his 80th birthday, which is next March. The piece, depicting the construction and flight of a machine, immediately conjured the mystery of creation, with unpredictable harmonies and a rumbling tension foreshadowing the takeoff to come. The percussion creaked, supporting the piece from underneath and generating a sense of the machine that was flecked with eerie harmonics deftly executed by the violins.

After the sound of the assembly grew to a roar, the orchestra launched. The strings propelled the machine with driving triplets, and the entire ensemble shifted and swelled together as if impelled by an unrelenting force.

The violins’ harmonics returned like a metallic wind, and the cellos and brass played a majestic theme with soaring eloquence. The united orchestra concluded the piece with a resounding, affirming chord.

Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphony in Three Movements” was next, continuing the feeling of locomotion that “Flying Machine” had established. Despite shaky intonation at the beginning of the piece, the orchestra played with appropriately dry, exact rhythm, supported by the remarkably pure tone of the French horns. The first clarinet (Billy T. Marks ’11) delivered a nuanced solo, and the orchestra maneuvered quick changes from quick rhythmic jabs to charming, almost sarcastic melodic sections.

The second movement began with a sweet, floating melody, with sparkling duets from the flutes and oboes. Later, the mood changed to a spooky, swaying sound from the strings, punctuated by elegant solos from the harpist (Krysten A. Keches ’10) and principal first violinist (Aaron T. Kuan ’09).

The piece ended with a heavy march that was brimming with energy; Yannatos led the orchestra like a train over hills and through valleys. Like in “Flying Machine,” the orchestra was propelled by momentum, its different parts combining and growing into one. After such a dramatic buildup, the piece’s end was unfortunately a little insecure, but it hardly detracted from the exhilarating performance.

After the intermission, the orchestra played Felix Mendelssohn’s third symphony, “Scottish.” The violins rescued the shaky opening solo by the violas, leading the strings’ lyricism throughout the tragic movement. The violins continued to play with convincing urgency for the duration of the piece, but the lower strings couldn’t muster much support. The lively second movement was buoyant with running 16th notes in the strings like a motor beneath the orchestra. The speed occasionally got the better of the strings, as the sound sometimes lost its crispness, but Yannatos again gave the audience a thrilling ride.

The slow third movement features striking, solemn chorales in the horns and bassoons and a lush string sound. In the tumultuous final movement, the strings nimbly ducked under and crept over the winds, and the piece finished with a fulfilling culmination of the momentum that had gathered throughout, capping off the performance by Yannatos and his beaming orchestra.