Hartford Symphony, Hartford, CT
April 7-9, 2017
by Michael J. Moran
Earth is the only one of the eight known planets missing
from the featured work on this program, Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The
Planets,” when he wrote it during World War I (Pluto came and went later). But
the ninety-years-newer opening piece, “Liquid Interface,” filled that gap by
exploring “water in its variety of forms” on earth. Composer Mason Bates notes
in the program book that living near Lake Wannsee in Berlin inspired him to
write it.
Maestra Carolyn Kuan helpfully preceded the HSO’s first-ever
performance of “Liquid Interface” with a spoken introduction to each of its
four movements, and brief excerpts played by orchestra members. A 40-year-old
Philadelphia native, Bates has worked as a DJ in pop music clubs and
incorporates electronic elements into many of his compositions. A laptop
operator seated near the percussion section produced a range of atmospheric
sounds throughout the 23-minute piece.
Recorded snippets of glaciers breaking into the Antarctic
extend crashing orchestral chords in the first movement, “Glaciers Calving.”
The following “Scherzo Liquido” has a lighter, more playful quality. The third
movement, “Crescent City,” showcases big-band jazz in New Orleans. The quiet
finale, “On the Wannsee,” depicts, in Bates’s words, “a kind of balmy,
greenhouse paradise.” The HSO delivered this challenging but engaging score
with flair and won a standing ovation from the enthralled audience.
No greater contrast with this lush ending could be imagined
than the fierce martial tread of “Mars, the Bringer of War,” which Kuan and an
enlarged orchestra invested with relentless power as they launched into “The
Planets” after intermission. The tranquil “Venus, the Bringer of Peace” then
restored the radiant glow of Bates’s finale. And so it went through the nimble
energy of “Mercury, the Winged Messenger;” the robust optimism of “Jupiter, the
Bringer of Jollity;” the solemn grace of “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age;” the
awkward humor of “Uranus, the Magician;” and the eerie mystery of “Neptune, the
Mystic.”
The musicians presented this colorful suite with emotional
intensity and brilliant virtuosity. The seven-member choir that fades out at
the end of “Neptune” brought the concert to a magical close.
