Music Reviews

Oct 23, 2005 - Joan Tower and a celebration of American music with the Reno Chamber Orchestra

By Jack Neal

Innovation can be dangerous. Yet the Reno Chamber Orchestra's penchant for doing the daring thing is paying off.

In a concert looking and sounding more like Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall, Saturday night's (10/22/05) Reno Chamber Orchestra program celebrating American music risked offending concert traditionalists. As guest conducted by avant-garde conductor and clarinetist Carl Topilow, it was a pretty jazzy night out for concert audiences more used to the concerti grossi of Handel than the happenings at some late-night jazz joint in New York.

That the jazz-joint ambiance passed muster and then some, and the "and then some" portions of the concert passed its own muster made for an evening sans Handel that came pretty close to being memorable.

And memorable is as memorable does.

As part of the Ford Foundation's Made in America support of the arts in partnership with the American Symphony Orchestra League's Meet the Composer program initiative, and a consortium of dozens of America's orchestras beyond the great metropolitian centers of art, American composer Joan Tower was hired to compose a new work - then take off across the country and conduct it. Thus it was that Ms. Tower's fifteen minute work, "Made in America," made its West Coast premier here in Reno with the composer conducting. It was warmly received by Sarturday's large Nightingale Concert Hall audience who give the piece, and its composer, an extended standing ovation. Ms. Tower based her work on the theme from "America The Beautiful" and the thrill of being an American with all the advantages Americans have compared to the poverty of most of the world's inhabitants. Ms. Tower, an American, has lived in Bolivia and has seen firsthand the ravages of being poor. And just how does the composer's love and admiration for country translate into her "Made in America"? More than any other technique, through a prism of texture and tonal clusters that radiate an abstract energized spirit one might loosely call pride Americana. One of the advantages of having a composer conduct her own work, is the highlighting of coloration and the enhancement of themes that translates what's in the composer's creative ear to the ears of listeners.

Ms. Tower's interpretation of her "Made in America" created an easily accessible work for listeners that portends future encounters with the piece offering new discoveries of musical treasures not readily perceivable the first time around. It's the rediscovery of future conductors, orchestras and audiences that will allow "Made in America" to stand the test of time and discovery to determine what treasures are under its attractive surface. "Made in America," with its modern harmonies and textural overlays, is a clearly contemporary slice of writing. It's also an engaging work that deserves many future performances.

"Made in America" was followed by Aaron Copland's all-American "Appalachian Spring Suite." As I'm sure Ms. Tower will readily admit, there's no other composer so indelibly linked to the plaintive and open-range American sound than Aaron Copland. Mr. Topilow does not shy away from the challenge of reinterpreting this great American score. His expansive treatment for this poignant work was superbly on target for an absolutely glowing performance.

Rambunctious as those wonderful dances in MGM's "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," Mr. Topilow made Copland's "Hoedown" from "Rodeo" more thrilling than a night out roping cattle. But that was just a warmup for the blue-grass nature of Russell Peck's three-movement "Signs of Life II" for strings which came off as adventuresome as a John Ford western. Using film as an analogy for Carl Topilow's work is not by chance. It's clear this devil-may-care artist intends to unstuff the stuffiness of traditional concertgoing and place film scores where they belong - as part of the symphonic repertory.

Also a fine clarinetist, Mr. Topilow conducted and played memorable clarinet for the themes from John Williams's "Schindler's List" and "The Terminal." Then it was on to do the same thing for three of Gerswhin's fabulous songs from "Porgy and Bess" - "Summertime," "It ain't necessarily so," and "Theres a boat dat's leavin' soon for New York."

Mr. Topilow has the combined talents of a keen, supple musicianship, a baton technique with presence, a magical way with a clarinet and shrewd showmanship.

As one of the chamber orchestra's musicians said: "On paper the program seems corny, but it works."

And so it did.

All Reno Chamber Orchestra subscription concerts are played at Nightingale Concert Hall, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. The orchestra is co sponsoring the National Symphony Orchestra with conductor Leonard Slatkin, Thursday, October 27 (2005) at 8 p.m. The orchestra's next concerts will be Jan. 14 and 15 (2006) with violinist Jennifer Frautschi. For information call 775-348-9413.