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BY
JAMES D. WATTS JR.
World Scene Writer
Now, the real work begins.The Tulsa
Symphony Orchestra has come an
extraordinarily long way, from the
moment its creation was announced in
December 2005 to the final concert
of its first season, which was
presented Saturday night at the
Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
In that time, the orchestra has
grown from an ambitious dream — a
unique approach to the concept of a
musician-run orchestra — into a
continually surprising reality. The
orchestra has accompanied Tulsa
Ballet and the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus
and presented a special event
combining classic Warner Bros.
cartoons with live music. Its
members have played for the
orchestras of Tulsa Opera and Light
Opera Oklahoma and have performed
throughout the state in small
ensembles.
What’s even more impressive is that
the Tulsa Symphony sold out two of
the five concerts that made up its
regular 2006-07 season.
And, as Saturday night’s concert
proved, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra
has more than enough talent and
determination to fulfill its
artistic ambitions. The music chosen
for this concert was designed — to
put it simply if a tad crudely — to
let the orchestra show off, to
present the sonic extremes and
musical richness of a full symphony
orchestra.
And we mean FULL. Saturday’s concert
was performed by a group of more
than 100 musicians. (There were more
photo assignments than Tulsa World
photographers Saturday evening, so
you’ll have to take our word for it
that all those players filling the
Chapman Music Hall stage was an
impressive sight.)
Alastair Willis, who has held posts
with the Seattle and Cincinnati
symphonies and had appeared with
most of the country’s major
orchestras, was the conductor for
the evening, and his rapport with
the Tulsa Symphony musicians was
remarkable. It was best shown in the
quietest moment of the evening, the
“Adagio for Strings” by Samuel
Barber — performed this evening in
honor of the late Mstislav
Rostropovich, the legendary cellist
and conductor who died last month.
The Adagio is a piece that sounds
simple and uncomplicated, but is
fiendishly difficult, because its
power comes from a sense of great
and tragic emotion held tightly in
check. Whispers of sound build to a
heartrending sob, a moment of
release, then subside into quiet
resignation.
It requires a great deal of skill
and control to play this delicate
piece well, and the Tulsa Symphony’s
performance of it Saturday was one
of the best I’ve ever heard. We’ll
go a step further — it was perfect.
The orchestra’s performance of the
Adagio deserved all the “Bravos” and
huzzahs that the other three pieces
on the program received. But, like
the music itself, the audience’s
response was more muted — out of
respect, perhaps, or to savor for a
bit longer the tender atmosphere the
music created.
And the other pieces on the program
were done with equal aplomb. They
included Respighi’s “Church
Windows,” a four-movement symphonic
poem, and his arrangement of Bach’s
“Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor.”
Respighi was famous for his way of
exploiting all the sonic
possibilities of an orchestra, and
these two pieces are textbook
examples of that skill. His
arrangement of the Bach piece for
organ manages simultaneously to be
supremely orchestral and yet still
maintain the aural feel of a massive
pipe organ.
“Church Windows” is more the sort of
wild sonic ride one expects from
this composer. These are definitely
impressions of stained-glass windows
seen from outside a church, rather
than inside — the emphasis is on the
vivid color, mosaic-like complexity
and soaring architecture.
There are touches of reverence, as
in the second movement, “St. Michael
Archangel,” with its celestial
trumpet solo (played off-stage by
principal Tim McFadden) and the
seesawing motif that underlies the
final movement, “St. Gregory the
Great.” But the payoff is pure
adrenaline — the explosive crash of
the gong at the end of the second
movement, the exultant organ solo in
the finale. And the Tulsa Symphony’s
performance accomplished exactly
what Respighi wanted — it made
people say, “Oh, wow!”
As did the final piece of the
evening, the “Symphony No. 5” by
Tchaikovsky — but for different
reasons. Yes, the Tchaikovsky Fifth
builds to a wonderfully triumphant
finale — if the subject of this
work, as some say, is Fate, then
Fate is joyously embraced as the
work comes to its end.
But the symphony also helped to
spotlight the abilities of many
individuals in the orchestra.
Principal clarinet Brad Behn had so
many solos throughout the piece,
beginning with the opening melody,
that this piece almost seemed a
concerto for clarinet and orchestra.
Principal French horn Bruce Schultz
performed the hymnlike melody that
opens the second movement with great
skill and passion, and principal
bassoon Richard Ramey gave a jaunty
air to the melodies of the third
movement.
Conductor Willis said early on in
the evening that this concert was a
celebration of the Tulsa Symphony,
and he demonstrated that during the
four curtain calls at the concert’s
end by moving to the back of the
orchestra, so that no one stood
between the Tulsa Symphony and its
very appreciative audience.
Now: the work. The novelty of Tulsa
having a new orchestra ended
Saturday night. What comes now is
finding out how committed Tulsa is
to maintaining this orchestra — not
simply to keep it in existence, but
allowing it to thrive. The
commitment of the Tulsa
Symphony Orchestra musicians to that
goal, and to this city, is
unquestionable. The commitment of
Tulsa to the dream these dedicated
people are working to realize needs
to be just as unshakable.
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
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