Orchestra 2001, Phila. Classical Symphony

The composer who (temporarily)
made me forget Mozart

TOM PURDOM

I once heard a local conductor introduce a piece by Mozart by mentioning that one of the younger musicians had said, “This is the best thing on the program.” The conductor had told her, he said, that a piece by Mozart will always be the best thing on the program.

I thought of that axiom— for the umpteenth time in my listening career— when Orchestra 2001 opened the second half of its latest concert with a Mozart divertimento for six winds. The first half had been devoted to three pieces played by the guest artists, the Imani Winds. They were all well played, well-constructed works. But none of them evoked that extra response that makes you feel you’ve experienced something truly special.

The Mozart was a youthful musical entertainment. But Mozart’s creativity and liveliness transformed entertainment in the same way that clever dialogue and inventive plotting can turn a routine romantic comedy into a memorable sparkler.

This time, however, I revised my opinion about five minutes after the Mozart ended. The best piece on this program was composed by Valerie Coleman.

Child prodigy

Valerie Coleman is the flutist and founder of the Imani Winds. She is also a composer with a long list of works and prizes, including, according to her bio, three symphonies completed by the time she was 14.

According to her introductory comments, Coleman’s Afro-Cuban Concerto began as a commission from a German orchestra, but the deal fell through. The Imani Winds had played it before in a pure wind ensemble version. Orchestra 2001 was presenting the world premiere of the full orchestra version, and the composer seemed genuinely touched when she gestured at the orchestra crowded onto the stage behind her.

The concerto got off to a beautiful, atmospheric start with a strong, expressive trumpet playing over the orchestra. Coleman gives all the winds plenty of well-written solos, and she plays with interesting combinations like a duet for clarinet and bassoon, and a bassoon solo played over held notes from the violins. The soft poetic horn solos are a major highlight.

An investment that paid off

The bio for the Imani hornist, Jeff Scott, notes that his first teacher taught him for free, “giving him the opportunity to study music when resources were not available.” She knew what she was doing.

The concerto is built around Afro-Cuban rhythms, including the rumba, and the complexity of the rhythms is one of the reasons the orchestral writing sounds continually fresh and original. The orchestral part veers toward generic orchestral music at the beginning of the third movement, but it soon recovers and the concerto ends with a driving all-out frenzy.

The encore was a Coleman score for wind ensemble that indicated the concerto is not a fluke. Once again Coleman found sounds in the wind quintet nobody else seems to have noticed. Once again, she came up with solos and combinations that captured the soul of the wind instruments.

The trumpet solo at the beginning of the Afro-Cuban Concerto was so impressive that I glanced at my program to see who the trumpeter was— and discovered it was the same trumpeter I’d heard just the night before, when the Philadelphia Classical Symphony presented a Scarlatti cantata for trumpet and soprano.

Remember this name

Darin Kelly is a Philadelphia resident who plays with classical, baroque, popular and folk groups based all over the Mid-Atlantic region. I’ve probably heard him before, but this is the first time his name seems to have registered with me. He should be considered a valuable local asset, if his work with the Classical Symphony is a valid sample.

Kelly was teamed with a Baroque superstar, Julianne Baird, and both of them soloed in separate items before they joined forces. Both pieces were strengthened by the able support of the third billed musician on the program, pianist/harpsichordist Hugh Sung. Kelly’s outing was a driving 1948 concertino for trumpet, piano and strings that required almost continuous playing from the trumpet. Julianne Baird sang eight settings of cavalier poems composed by a 20th-Century English composer, Roger Quilter.

A logistical error

The music in the Quilter was a fine example of the airy English pastoral style, with a piano part that managed to suggest a harpsichord without actually imitating it. The performance was marred, unfortunately, by a logistical error: The text wasn’t included in the program. I could appreciate Julianne Baird’s singing but I could only catch a word here and there.

I used to lament the fact that most vocalists can’t be understood without a printed text, but I’ve decided it’s unavoidable. Classical singers are faced with so many technical challenges that you can’t expect them to concentrate on clear pronunciation, too. Texts should be provided for English songs, as well as foreign.

The Scarlatti was an unalloyed triumph, and Baird and Kelly followed it with an encore that was just as good— Handel’s Let all voices prepare for war. The text to the Scarlatti is a rather mundane bit about unrequited love, but the trumpet and soprano combination is so glorious that it doesn’t matter whether the composer is celebrating the Glory of God or Jenny’s jawline. Baroque composers even used the same music for both subjects.

Smiles and high fives

Part of the excitement of the trumpet, voice and orchestra combination is the sight of the three principals staying coordinated when a single misstep can send the whole act tumbling off the high wire. Baird and Kelly have burned a CD of trumpet and soprano arias, and they obviously liked working with each other— a liking based on respect for the other person’s abilities.

Purists may feel the sound is all that counts and no review should mention the duo’s smiles and high fives at the end of their collaborations. To me, that kind of thing is one of the attractions of live performance— and I think the composers would agree. Scarlatti and Handel didn’t write for people who sit in lonely little rooms with earphones on their heads.