Orchestra concludes its strong musical season

Arthur Post conducts two pieces, big Beethoven, tiny 'microsymph'

by Judith Reynolds
Special to the Herald

A musical tidal wave swept over the Four Corners last weekend.

The San Juan Symphony offered Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in all its complex grandeur as the finale of a remarkable season. In twin performances - first at the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Farmington's Henderson Performance Hall - Music Director Arthur Post brought emotional vigor to what's considered to be the world's greatest symphony.

His conception was marked by clarity and intensity. And he startled us all with a witty, slightly mad choice for an opener.

Post chose a spare little work, "microsymph" by Sebastian Currier, a contemporary American composer who turns 50 years old this year. Apparently known for his compositional brevity, Currier compressed traditional symphonic material into this 10-minute work. Everything is there: five Lilliputian movements, a pause between each, even a little coda.

But the Currier piece arrived and disappeared like quicksilver, similar to the title of the first (two-minute) movement, "quick-change." The second movement, "minute waltz," briefly entertained the idea of a dance. Only the third, "adagio," lasted more than four minutes, and quoted from Mahler to do so. "Nano-scherzo" vanished in another two minutes.

If you listened closely to "kaleidoscope," the finale, you could hear snippets from earlier sections, not unlike Beethoven's brilliant summary at the end of the Ninth Symphony, except that Ludwig took 25 minutes and Currier took two, which seemed to be the point.

Post's rendering of this symphonic fluff was tight and controlled. It had to be hard to learn and perform. But the orchestra let the humor show through right up to the little poof that marked the end.

Pitted next to Post's relatively fast, muscular, 70-minute reading of the Ninth Symphony, the Currier turned out to be a perfect contrast, a tiny skiff rowing into the path of a Beethoven tsunami.

What can anyone say about the Ninth that hasn't already been said? Well, interpretation matters. And that's where Post and his 200-plus musicians come in. What was clear - from the mysterious opening, which seemed to suggest the stirring of life on the planet, to the operatic conclusion announcing the joy of brotherhood - was that Post would not let this performance slip into a logy gear or maudlin overdrive.

In the first and longest movement, strange descending open fifths appear early and reoccur regularly, like a death tap on your shoulder. Post allowed this motif to emerge through the texture of the music, no matter how dense.

The second movement, the scherzo, came as welcome relief to all that doom foretold. Post launched his musicians into a wonderful gallop. It's easy to rush the scherzo, but Post controlled the race, especially as it headed into sudden, expansive sections where sunlight seemed to shine through, then disappear again.

The adagio, third movement, was pure loveliness, another welcome respite from the first movement's restless spectrum of moods. Sweet and sorrowful, it is more prayer than stoic tranquility. Everyone knows Beethoven never left a tranquil or prayerful moment alone, so Post signaled the ominous trumpet interruptions to make the composer's point clear.

The key problem in this groundbreaking symphony always has been the integration of the final choral movement into the general orchestral fabric.

Beethoven solved it by abruptly changing the tone at the beginning of the presto, the fourth movement.

An angry trumpet entrance is followed by a dark passage in the cellos. Post edged the darkness on and the musicians broke into yet another fugue, driving toward a sudden, sharp call to joy and brotherhood by the baritone soloist. It's one of the great moments in Western music, and this performance didn't disappoint.

Post fully controlled the transition, and bass-baritone Steven Meredith brought strength and dignity to the opening salvo. Choral voices eventually joined him in a message of "we are all one".

In quick succession, the massive choir, about 145 voices strong and prepared by Linda Mack Berven, picked up what many describe as a rousing drinking song to brotherhood. The clean articulation heard in the orchestra was echoed by the singers.

Even with that many voices, every word was clear, every attack and release crisp and fully in sync with Post's overall interpretation.

When the solo quartet entered, the celebration continued at the extreme reaches of the voice. Soprano Gemma Kavanagh, mezzo Nan Nelson Wagner, tenor Christopher Bengochea and Meredith powered their stirring song over the orchestra and chorus.

It was tenor Bengochea who got the odd, jaunty solo in the Turkish march that interrupts the festivities.

And, just as quickly, everything spun back to those fateful trumpet calls and the disturbing fifths that kept falling like pebbles off a cliff.

The solo quartet's cadenza offered yet another detour, a meandering passage of intertwining lines that showed how glorious Beethoven's vocal writing can be.

When Post finally led the orchestra and singers through the majestic mood shifts that careen into an end-game blitz, it was fast, furious and enormously gratifying.

http://www.durangoherald.com/sections/A&E/2009/04/21/Orchestra_concludes_its_strong_musical_season/