Britt Orchestra Follows Epic Opening Night With Glorious, Historic Second Night Concert – by Lee Greene

Composer Samuel Adams introduces his composition, Radial Play to the Britt Festivals audience, as Maestro Teddy Abrams and the Britt Orchestra look on, at Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville, OR on Aug. 1, 2015.

The concert opened with the introduction of the slender, youthful looking, 29-year old contemporary classical American composer, Samuel Adams, taking the stage to describe his 6 minute piece, Radial Play. Radial Play was composed in 2014 on a commission from Carnegie Hall for the National Youth Orchestra. Being careful to explain and adhere to the advice he received during his training as a composer, that introductions to classical compositions should be no longer than the compositions themselves, young Mr. Adams explained that the work was an attempt to explore musical texture and color; he described the experience of hearing the piece as akin to “looking through a kaleidoscope”: the object in focus remains the same, but the perceived textures and colors continuously shift. Then Mr. Abrams took the podium and led the orchestra through a very satisfying performance of what proved to be a quite beautiful and unique work. The distinctive and exquisite character of the composition became obvious from the very first strains of the work. Mr. Adams begins the piece with an absolutely lovely interplay back and forth between two harps, which was delicately and sublimely played by the orchestra’s two harpists: Principal harpist Julia Coronelli played the first measure, harpist Katie Wychulis played the second, Ms. Coronelli the third, Ms. Wychulis the fourth. The phrase was repeated in the same way several more times later in the piece. It was utterly original, creative, and almost heavenly. The entire 6 minute piece was a novel delight like that. It was an inspired choice (by Mr. Abrams of course) to open the concert. When the orchestra concluded the piece, the audience erupted in applause and Mr. Adams returned to the stage to take some well-deserved bows, and receive an embrace from Mr. Abrams and a hearty handshake from concertmaster, Iggy Jang.

After young Samuel Adams had left the stage, he was followed by his father, silver-haired 68-year old contemporary classical American composer, John Adams, who offered a considerably more extended introduction to his piece, Absolute Jest, than his son had presented for Radial Play. The elder Mr. Adams noted that historically, classical composers like to embrace their favorite works by their predecessors, and build upon them, devising imaginative and inventive variations based upon the earlier works. That’s what he has done, in creating Absolute Jest. Being quite taken with Ludwig van Beethoven’s late string quartets, Mr. Adams had taken Beethoven’s very last string quartet (Opus 135: String Quartet No. 16 in F major) and constructed a 25 minute scherzo quoting fragments of it, but “taking the minimal amount of information” and using the orchestra “turning it into fantastic, expressive, and energized structures.” The piece requires not only a symphony orchestra, but also a string quartet, and Maestro Abrams felicitously enlisted the participation of one of the newest shining lights in the classical string quartet universe: the Dover Quartet. It is not entirely coincidental that Mr. Abrams received some of his training at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, where some of the Dover Quartet also received part of their music education and the Dover Quartet now are currently the first ever Quartet-in-Residence at the school.

(I can’t resist a brief aside. According to statistics compiled by U.S. News & World Report, the Curtis Institute had the lowest acceptance rate of any college or university (3.2%)

Composer John Adams, with Maestro Teddy Abrams, members of the Dover Quartet, and the Britt Orchestra, soak up the audience’s sustained applause after the performance of Mr. Adams’ Absolute Jest at the Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville, OR on Aug. 1, 2015.

By further coincidence (or maybe not), Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F major happens to be among the performance repertoire of the Dover Quartet, and the elder Mr. Adams knowing that, asked the Quartet to play a sample from the original Beethoven piece for the education of the Britt audience, a request which the Quartet was only too happy to accommodate. After the mini performance of a snippet of the original Beethoven Quartet, the senior Mr. Adams stepped away, and Maestro Abrams led the orchestra and quartet through Mr. Adam’s ingenious derivative work. Mr. Adams has written that the piece summons up references of Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony scherzo, . . . the Hammerklavier Sonata, . . . the Eighth Symphony, and other archetypal Beethoven motifs that come and go like cameo appearances on a stage. . . .” A careful listener could hear ALL of that. But it was hardly just a direct quote of Beethoven snippets. Mr. Adams uses the entire orchestra well, strings especially, but brass and woodwinds also, and if it is possible to employ the percussion section better than Beethoven himself, Mr. Adams has accomplished that. The entire piece had a frantic character to it, becoming more so as it unfolded, which is not characteristic of the original Beethoven works. And it reached a rousing climax, which occurs about two minutes BEFORE settling to a quiet conclusion. The audience loved it and responded with sustained applause. When John Adams returned to the stage to take his bows and shake the hands of Mr. Abrams and the Dover Quartet members the audience continued their enthusiastic applause and seemed reluctant to let him leave the stage.

Following a well-deserved intermission, giving everyone, musicians and audience alike, an opportunity to catch their breath and re-energize, the orchestra took the stage again and with Mr. Abrams in full command at the podium, launched into the performance of Igor Stravinsky’s world shattering gem of the classical repertoire, The Rite of Spring. The Rite of Spring was originally written as a ballet with what was widely viewed at the time as unconventional and provocative choreography. But the music itself was revolutionary, including novel “experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. . . . The music has influenced many of the 20^th-century’s leading composers, and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.” [Wikipedia, The Rite of Spring, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring] The ballet received a very critical reception (the debut audience famously rioted) and was only performed a half dozen times before the choreography was lost forever. “Although designed as a work for the stage, . . . the music achieved . . . greater recognition as a concert piece, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20^th century.” [Id.]

Like Carmina Burana performed by the Britt Orchestra the previous night, The Rite of Spring requires a large orchestra: the score calls for one piccolo, three flutes (third doubling second piccolo), one alto flute, four oboes (fourth doubling second English horn), English horn, three clarinets in B♭ and A (third doubling second bass clarinet), clarinet in E♭ and D, one bass clarinet, four bassoons (fourth doubling second contrabassoon), one contrabassoon; eight horns (seventh and eighth doubling tenor Wagner tubas), trumpet in D, four trumpets in C (fourth doubling bass trumpet in E♭), two trombones, one bass trombone, two bass tubas; a percussion section with 5 timpani (requiring two players), bass drum, gong, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, antique cymbals in A♭ and B♭, güiro; and strings. As noted in the comments of the previous night regarding the large orchestra required for Carmina Burana, Maestro Abrams achieved a historic landmark for the Britt Festivals by assembling all the requisite instruments with their musicians on the Britt Pavilion stage to constitute that required large orchestra. Once again Maestro Abrams and the Britt Orchestra delivered a dazzling performance of one of the greatest works of the classical repertoire. Once more, it is hard for me to find words to do justice to the Britt Orchestra’s remarkable and exemplary performance of this monumental work. To begin to get some idea of just how glorious and exceptional the performance was, I offer you an opportunity to listen to this one minute sample of the performance:

Of course, that’s just a fraction of the 35 minute composition, and hardly comes close to comprehensively illustrating the full extent of the wonderful performance of Stravinsky’s landmark work Saturday evening. The predominant thought in my mind, as I sat there in the Britt Pavilion, listening to that performance of The Rite of Spring, was just how polished and perfect the performance was – it was the equal of anything by any of the great, major orchestras I have had the privilege to attend live performances by – the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, etc. Under Mr. Abrams’ leadership, the orchestra has become SO GOOD, the musicians ALL in top form, at the top of their game, and absolutely in sync with one another and the conductor, that it is almost too easy to take such excellence for granted. Folks, we are in rural Southern Oregon, surrounded by forests (as if it were possible to forget that fact while socked in by forest fire generated smoke!) and enjoying world class musical performances the equal of that enjoyed by the privileged denizens of any major metropolis. Wow! Major kudos to the Britt Orchestra musicians and especially to the amazing Teddy Abrams for their fine work this season.

This was the second of seven classical concerts for the 2015 season. The remaining five promise to be just as extraordinary, spectacular and impressive. Up next, the Third Night (Fri. Aug. 7) of the Classical Season offers a treasure trove of musical wonders, including two world premieres, several 20^th Century gems of the classical repertoire and Aaron Copland’s popular masterpiece : Ive’s Putnam’s Camp from Three Places in New England; Aoife O’Donovan’s Red & White & Blue & Gold; Jeremy Kittel’s Big Fiddle; Britt’s own Teddy Abrams’ Questions (world premiere); O’Donovan, Kittel, & Abrams’ Bull Frogs Croon (poems by Peter Sears) (world premiere); Antheil’s A Jazz Symphony; Ive’s Ragtime Dance No. 3; and Aaron Copland’s Suite from Billy The Kid. I’ve said it before and at the risk of being repetitive, I will repeat it here: This is a world class orchestra, populated by top of the line musicians from notable orchestras around the U.S. and the world, in the hands of one of the most talented conductors/music directors on the classical scene today. If you are any kind of a fan of classical music, and within reasonable proximity of Jacksonville, Oregon, you are missing the experience of a lifetime if you don’t have tickets to one or more of these Britt Festivals 2015 Classical Season concerts. You can get them online at brittfest.org or by calling the box office at 541-773-6077 or 1-800-882-7488

Featured image caption: Maestro Teddy Abrams leads the Britt Orchestra in a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring on the Second Night of the Britt Classical Festival, on August 1, 2015 at Jacksonville, OR.