Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Springfield, MA
September 27, 2014
by Michael J. Moran
To open the SSO’s 71st season and his own 14th season as
music director, Kevin Rhodes presented what he calls in his “Rhodes’
Reflections” column in the program book “three incredible showpieces for
orchestra” which feature all these musicians as soloists. In doing so, the
clever maestro also upended some classical programming traditions.
Ravel’s crowd-pleasing “Bolero” is usually a rousing closer,
but Rhodes brilliantly engaged his audience by beginning the concert instead
with this most familiar piece on the program. The opening notes of the snare
drum’s steady ostinato rhythm established a slightly faster than normal tempo,
and the excitement only grew as the sinuous melody first introduced by a solo
flute gained instruments and volume with each repetition before reaching its
“loud as possible” crescendo 14 minutes later. The SSO’s performance was
exhilarating and carefully balanced.
With the audience now ready for less familiar fare, the
vivid account of Debussy’s “La Mer” (“The Sea”) that came next found both
clarity and mystery in these “three symphonic sketches.” The SSO’s playing was
a marvel of contrasting moods in “From Dawn till Noon on the Sea,” delicacy in
the “Play of the Waves,” and blazing intensity in the “Dialogue of the Wind and
the Sea.”
The concert closed after intermission with a dramatic
rendition of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” in Ravel’s masterful 1922
orchestration. Among its many distinctive pleasures are the opening promenade
for solo trumpet, the soulful saxophone (also notable in “Bolero”) in “The Old
Castle,” and the chirping woodwinds in “The Ballet of the Chicks in Their
Shells.” Rhodes and the SSO also captured the full majesty of the climactic
“Great Gate at Kiev,” perhaps the grandest of all finales.
After each piece Rhodes singled out many individual players
and whole sections of the orchestra for “solo” bows. The percussion section was
special fun to watch as they scrambled from one colorful instrument to another
in meeting the many demands of this program on their formidable skills. The
mutual respect clearly shared by all these musicians augurs a fulfilling season
of great performances ahead.
