KW Symphony: Safely On The Road To Recovery
Friday, 14th September 2007
Centre In The Square
KWS: Edwin Outwater, baton
There was a buzz about the place on Friday evening as the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony launched what the marketing department has styled a New Era of Music. The KWS is understandably desperate to erase the past three years from the minds of its patrons and if Friday night’s performance was any indication, things are heading in the right direction.
The Centre in The Square was filled with the largest crowd the Symphony has seen in a long time and even more promising than numbers was the composition. An overhead view revealed the presence of both salt and pepper rather than the usual snow white.
After the concertmaster had taken his place, some vaguely Latin music wafted from the loudspeakers. This development caused Miss Mussel to have a small panic attack, for fear that organizers had decided to “connect with the kids” by having the new music director Edwin Outwater to make his entrance to music, WWE style. Fortunately for all involved, this was not the case. What followed was a well-presented, if slightly over-earnest, video introducing the Symphony’s various concert series.
When Mr Outwater finally did make his appearance, he was greeted with a roar worthy of any celebrity. To say the excitement was palpable would be like pointing out that the Maple Leafs are not going to win the Stanley Cup: obvious and unnecessary.
With all the pre-show hoopla out of the way, it was finally time to get down to the music. The first piece was a preview of music from John Adam’s opera Nixon in China, entitled The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra. In contrast the minimalist compositions of Steve Reich or Arvo Pärt, The Foxtrot was full of quiet energy and its constantly shifting tone colours brought to mind Debussy and Ravel. The orchestra was used to create many different sounds, the most interesting of which came at the end when Adams re-created the hissing of a finished LP.
Next on the program was Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with pianist James Parker. He was also greeted warmly by the crowd, receiving a Bravo! before he even played a note. Mr Parker did not disappoint and played with a generous, soft touch, perfectly suited to the piece’s jazz inflections. He showed particular sensitivity in the second movement, a staggeringly beautiful slow waltz. Introspective, but never hopeless, this movement was without at doubt the highlight of the concerto. Ravel’s habit of scoring highly exposed wind solos can make his music very difficult to play. Harpist Lori Gemmel and cor anglais player Faith Levene rose to the challenge and collaborated beautifully with the solo piano lines.
After intermission, Robert Astley, Chair of the KWS Board of Directors, presented Mr Outwater with a few items from area merchants. Mr Outwater was officially welcomed to the community, cutting a dashing figure in an Oktoberfest hat and arms full of Wellesly apple butter and Elmira maple syrup,
The second half was presented as a diptych, with Morton Feldman’s Madame Presse Died Last Week At Ninety leading straight into Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In some ways the symphony was curious programming choice. The first three pieces are all about tone colour, a relatively small dynamic range and using the orchestra as a chamber ensemble. Beethoven is none of these things, but it is a crowd pleaser and the piece Mr Outwater has indicated was his inspiration for becoming interested in classical music as a child.
Orchestra warhorses such as the Beethoven are problematic because it is difficult to come up with a new interpretation and even more of a challenge for the orchestra to turn off the auto-pilot. In Outwater’s version, the hand of fate gently taps at the door rather than violently breaking it down however the more relaxed tempo resulted in things getting a bit mired in the development. The sluggishness continued throughout the second movement and although cellos played well, six was simply not enough to create a big section sound needed for their variation set.
In the fugal section of the third movement, the orchestra suddenly came to life and played with the conviction missing from the earlier movements. Again, the extra cellos were sorely missed as the section was often overpowered by the basses. The transition between the third and fourth movements is one of the most exciting in all of music but Mr Outwater curiously chose to channel Feldman for those bars and removed all colour and momentum. While Miss Mussel does commend him for taking a risk and trying something new, in this case, the result was less than transcendental.
Any energy the orchestra did have slipped away and the last movement continued in a rather perfunctory manner. Intonation issues in the winds became a more serious problem but fortunately, the music was good enough to carry the show and the evening ended with a universal standing ovation.
The real strength of the evening was the imaginative programming. Mr Outwater clearly knows the repertoire and is not afraid to combine pieces that have previously made uncomfortable bedfellows. He may not get it right every time but the Symphony will be far healthier for it. Despite Outwater’s obvious enthusiasm, it will take a while for the musicians to get fully on board. Cuts to an already meagre salary and three years of institutional self-destruction are enough to destroy the soul of even the most enthusiastic of players.
Miss Mussel got the distinct feeling that the audience would have loved whatever the orchestra played last night. Stockhausen included. While this bivalve is tempering her enthusiasm with a healthy dose of caution, really what else could an orchestra wish for on its opening night?
