Cortese, Aucoin Lead HRO In Spirited Season Opener

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) opened its 204th season with a dynamic and highly energized symphonic journey. The HRO began the evening by presenting a contemporary piece from Peter Lieberson’s 2005 “Neruda Songs,” five works set to poems by Pablo Neruda, before traveling back in time with excerpts from Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s entire “Symphony No. 7” in A major, Op. 92.

Led by Music Director Federico Cortese, the HRO first featured mezzo-soprano Sofia M. Selowsky ’12 in “Amor mio, si muero y tu no mueres,” an excerpt from “Neruda Songs.” The song cycle was written as a musical gift for Lieberson’s wife, Lorraine, who was ill with breast cancer when Lieberson began to compose them for her. Selowsky delivered an impeccable performance of the same solos Lorraine Lieberson herself performed in the premiere of the work; her voice filled Sanders Theatre with a dark melody of love and grief. Her powerful vocals hovered near the brink of overpowering the orchestra, though Cortese masterfully maintained a balance by developing a thoughtful, introspective flair in the musical accompaniment. Lieberson’s composition is strikingly free-spirited: each instrument slid out and seamlessly slipped back into the piece as the orchestra developed a layered and haunting tune to open the evening.

In a deft display of versatility, the HRO then transitioned from Lieberson’s modern work into the prelude and “Liebestod” from Richard Wagner’s 1860 opera “Tristan und Isolde.” Assistant conductor Matthew A. Aucoin ’12 led the orchestra through this piece with a subtly articulate and detail-oriented style quite distinct from Cortese’s own. While Cortese held a sweeping vision of the orchestra’s dynamics and phrasing, Aucoin attentively highlighted the nuances of each instrument, bringing a new range of colors to the orchestra’s sound—though, of course, their respective pieces themselves called for quite different approaches.

The closing piece, “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7,” again directed by Cortese, is undoubtedly the most well known of the three. The orchestra vigorously tackled this difficult and exciting piece; the evening transformed from a more intimate, reflective showcase to an enthusiastic performance of scintillating vibrance appropriate for a symphony that Aucoin described in the program notes as a “fundamentally public piece.” Only a few blurry moments of transition between strings and woodwinds weakened the first and third movements; otherwise, the orchestra maintained a technical prowess that highlighted the intricate rhythms of the symphony.

The orchestra generated momentum with a rousing grand climax in the fourth movement. It was a triumphant and fitting end to a concert that began its musical journey in the 21st century and harked back to Beethoven’s finest years in the 19th, an era that inspired both Wagner, Lieberson, and undoubtedly the HRO itself.