BachSoc Wavers in Season Opener

In an ambitious and varied program, the Bach Society Orchestra (BachSoc) gave its first concert of the year this past Saturday. Directed by Yuga J. Cohler ’11, BachSoc tackled smaller, more esoteric works before launching into a shaky attempt at Beethoven’s renowned seventh symphony. Under the gilded lettering of “Beethoven” in Paine Hall, the orchestra opened with Giaochino Rossini’s overture to “L’Italiana in Algeri” of 1813. Rossini is almost always certain to entertain, but this rendition conveyed more fluff than spectacle. Opening pizzicato passages fell together in a rather silly dance, often muddled and uncertain. Ultimately, however, Cohler led BachSoc to a driving, forceful conclusion. Here, vigor stood in for precision.

BachSoc followed this opening piece with “Three Places in New England,” a challenging programmatic work by American insurance-agent-cum-radical-composer Charles Ives. Cohler and company navigated Ives’s eerie landscapes with strong dynamic contrasts. A slow, grinding build to a grating climax marks the first movement, recalling Civil War colonel Robert Shaw and his 54th Regiment. A boisterous folk-march follows in the middle movement, which at points could have accompanied rigorous head-banging in its near-deafening cacophony. A desolate and sparse finale resembled the first movement, but without dramatic build. Although one must appreciate BachSoc’s attempt to program contrasting, surprising works, their concert’s combination of Rossini and Ives was truly bizarre.

BachSoc finished the night with an impassioned—although perhaps not nuanced—offering of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7 in A Major.” Despite overall rhythmic clarity and well-conceived dramatic pauses between sections, a lack of dynamic balance plagued this performance from the start. Especially in the famous second movement, the brass completely overpowered the string sections, ridding this profound narrative of all drama. The third movement, however, skipped along with appropriate jaunt and zest. Several mishaps in the brass section almost derailed the final Allegro con brio, which came to a powerful (i.e. “loud”) yet abrupt conclusion. And there Beethoven remained, poised above the Paine Hall stage, probably thinking, “A für effort.”