Divided, HRO's Concert Stands

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra gathers some of the most talented musicians on campus, but in their third concert of the year—performed last Friday night—there were moments when the whole seemed weaker than the sum of its parts. After a wavering start, the evening picked up with Aaron Copland’s jazzy “Clarinet Concerto,” played by Andrew P. Lowy ’09, and concluded with a sparkling performance of Hector Berlioz’s classic masterpiece “Symphony Fantastique.”

The performance of the opening piece, George Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody”—composed in 1901, when he was only 19-years-old—exuded the propulsion and energy written into the music, but the long, exciting build-ups never seemed to completely cohere. Individual sections and musicians were adept at authentically delivering the folk tunes throughout; a theme in the flutes in the middle of the movement, backed by tight syncopations in the violins, was especially polished, as was a lush viola solo by Elizabeth C. Adams ’10.

But as a whole, HRO seemed stiffer than usual. Assistant conductor Hanjay Wang ’11, in his HRO debut, balanced the sound and skillfully led the orchestra through the several tempo changes, but an emphasis on control detracted from the sense of complete abandon that would have fully realized the piece’s excitement.

In contrast, the Copland concerto, led by music director James Yannatos, was fluid and evocative. Lowy played with an unfaltering purity of sound, moving seamlessly through all registers of his instrument. His intonation was magnificent, and, unlike most technically advanced performers, Lowy possessed the impressive ability to command his instrument to tell the story. From the beginning, his melodies were wandering and melancholy, impelling the listener to follow every turn.

HRO Music Director Dr. James Yannatos again showed his gift for conducting concertos; the swaying strings settled delicately under the clarinet, loyal to Lowy’s nuances. After an extended solo, Lowy moved into the playful second part of the concerto, trading arpeggios with the twinkling piano and strings. The piece finished with jazzy pandemonium, as the dialogue between Lowy and the orchestra surged to a loud, clean conclusion.

“Symphonie Fantastique,” the third and final piece on the program, was written in 1830, only three years after the Beethoven’s death. While Beethoven is considered a master of symphonic composition, Berlioz, with the production of “Symphonie Fantastique,” is credited with expanding the genre’s potential. By moving its traditional structure into a freer and more dramatic form he moved classical music further into Romanticism. The piece describes the opium-induced hallucinations of a young musician who dreams of his lover and has a variety of fantastical visions, culminating in a dance of monsters and witches who attend his funeral.

Yannatos and the HRO set the stage wonderfully from the outset. In the first movement, the strings achieved a dreamy sound with smooth changes of mood that placed the music in a realm of fantasy. In the beginning, there were the slightest hesitations of rhythm and intonation, but the orchestra coalesced as they moved through the movement. In the end, the airy, dreamy quality of the strings deepened beautifully into a rich sound. The second movement, depicting a ball, was remarkable for the violins, flutes, and clarinets’ ability to glide weightlessly as if dancing with tempered passion.

In the plaintive third movement, “A Scene in the Country,” the HRO moved smoothly through the shifts of emotion, enhanced by breezy strings. The fourth movement depicted the vision of the artist’s procession to his execution after killing his beloved, and the timpani, horns, and cellos led the march with tragic urgency. During the performance of the final movement, the “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath,” one could almost feel the spirits passing through the orchestra; each instrument became part of a wild mass that unified in a furious ending, finishing the psychedelic trip, and completing another talent-filled, though not the finest, performance by the HRO.