New West Symphony concert has nationalistic theme
Concert Review
By Cary Ginell soundthink@aol.com

Two themes pervaded the New West Symphony's concert at the Fred Kavli Theatre last Saturday night: one focusing on the cello, the other a selection of nationalistic works by Rossini, Shostakovich and Dvorak.

As director Boris Brott aptly pointed out, the overture to Rossini's opera "William Tell" has become hackneyed due to pop culture overexposure. Through the years, its familiar themes have been used in commercials, cartoons and Western shoot-'em-ups, not to mention a fierce lampooning by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.

Rather than being treated as an operatic excerpt, the "William Tell Overture" is also a nationalistic tone poem, with its four sections titled "Sunrise in the Alps" (featuring a cello duet), "Alpine Storm" (the strings representing the wind, punctuated by the woodwinds' raindrops), "Calm and Shepherd's Thanksgiving" and "Summon to Arms and March of the Swiss Soldiers." The musical portraits of Tell, a 14th century Swiss patriot, were so brilliant it is no wonder the piece has become a cliche, and despite Brott's admonishment to the audience not to think of TV's "The Lone Ranger," when the inevitable "galloping" theme was played, chuckles of recognition could still be heard.

Shostakovich's Concerto No. 1 for cello and orchestra was written for the late Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered the work in Moscow in October 1959. The concerto is a stunning and declarative work, with the cello representing a sole voice of defiance in the face of the then oppressive Soviet government.

Mark Tanner, principal cellist of the New West Symphony, was featured soloist, donning a bright red Russian kosovorotka shirt for the performance.

In the first movement, Tanner's byplay with hornist James Thatcher echoed the KGB's pursuit of dissidents. The second movement featured Tanner eloquently evoking the angst and sorrow of the Russian soul with a languid and morose wandering theme that almost sounded like a plea for justice.

As Brott pointed out, the concerto is more of a speech, especially in the a cappella third movement, during which Tanner employed harmonics to raise the voice of the instrument as well as simultaneously bowing with his right hand and plucking with his left. The insistent, hardbitten finale brought the work to a tumultuous close. For those who might not have had a taste for the tense complexities of the concerto, Tanner provided a more palatable and calming encore: Bach's "Air on the G String," accompanied only by cellos and basses, which cleansed the palate nicely before intermission.

Act II The second half was devoted to Dvorak's grand and evocative Symphony No. 9, subtitled "From the New World." Written in Iowa during the composer's 1892 visit to America, the symphony was one of the first European works to recognize American melodies, specifically, African American spirituals introduced to Dvorak by his student Harry Burleigh, who would later become the primary arranger and publisher of these works. The spirituals aroused the Bohemian poet in Dvorak's nature; the main theme played by the English horn in the second movement would become known as "Goin' Home."

Dvorak's symphony is not so much an expression of American nationalism as it is a multinational melding of music from various countries, the final result representing the cultural melting pot America had become.

Brott is at his best when interpreting Romantic works, and it was obvious he knew Dvorak's symphony well, barely even glancing at the score while acting out each and every nuance of the piece as if he, too, were a musician in the orchestra, wrapping his arms around the symphony like a warm blanket.

He has a symbiotic relationship with his orchestra, inspiring the musicians with his emotional direction and absorbing the glow of their performance. In the end, Brott conducted the audience as well, extracting a crescendo from their applause with a mischievous wave of his arms.