ASO closes season with 'Brilliance'
By DAVID LINDAUER, For The Capital
To conclude its 2006-2007 concert season, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has assembled a dazzling program of four works, all written within roughly a 50-year period.
From oldest to youngest, they are: Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" (1895); Jean Sibelius' brooding and lustrous Violin Concerto (1903); Silvestre Revueltas' "Sensemaya" (1938); and Paul Hindemith's rollicking delight, "Symphonic Metamorphosis" (1943).
This enticing collection of works, aptly titled "Orchestral Brilliance," will be presented May 4 and 5 at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. The soloist in the Sibelius Violin Concerto will be the astounding young violinist Jennifer Koh.
"Sensemaya" is probably Mexican composer Revueltas' best-known work. It is a short orchestral piece based on a poem by Afro-Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen and preserves much of the ethnic flavor of the original in its demonstrably Latin rhythms. Beginning as a relatively simple statement of tunes, it subtly builds to a climax constructed out of the counterpoint of these themes as they intertwine with one another.
Perhaps, right now, in some vast, ethereal plane of the universe, Great Minds are arguing about which violin concerto in the international repertoire is the greatest of all. I can save them the trouble: For my money, it's the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, the major solo work of this ASO concert. It's not as descriptive as Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," nor as tuneful as any of Mozart's five concertos. It doesn't possess the lustrous warmth of the Brahms, nor the exhalation of the Tchaikovsky, nor the romantic yearning of the Prokofiev Second, but for sheer virtuosity coupled with intense expression of feeling and instrumental effects, which will take your breath away, nothing compares with the Sibelius.
