Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony
February 5, 2011 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls
Ives – Symphony no. 3, The Camp Meeting
Chris Thile – Ad Astra Per Alia Porci with Chris Thile [2009]
Copland – Appalachian Spring, original version
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Review by John Goodin
Posted at the Mandolin Cafe forums
February 6, 2011
I had the great pleasure of hearing Chris Thile perform his mandolin concerto last night with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa. This involved a 2 hour drive each way on mostly 2 lane roads but was well worth the effort.
The WCFSO is a very fine orchestra led by conductor Jason Weinberger. They played a brilliantly designed program that opened with Charles Ives’ Symphony no. 3, followed by Thile’s Ad Astra Per Alia Porci. After intermission a subset of the orchestra performed the original 13 musician version of Copland’s Appalachian Spring. I believe the hall seats 1900 and the main floor and the first balcony were nearly full.
An hour before the concert Chris and Jason held a concert talk attended by 80 or so people. Chris was his usual high-energy self and talked about his musical upbringing and how the concerto came to be. In the process he used his Loar to demonstrate the impact of hearing Glen Gould’s Goldberg Variations recording as a teenager and did a little dance while playing a bit of the Preludio from the E major partita for solo violin. He also played a superb rendition of ‘Chinquapin Hunting’ in answer to a request from someone for a demonstration of bluegrass style.
The performance of the concerto itself seemed excellent to me. Chris played into a mic, which took a little getting used to, but the piece was written with that in mind. I’d like to hear it a few more times before I decide where it stands in the pantheon of Great Music but I certainly enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to see and hear Chris interact with the orchestra members. There was a lot of eye contact and movement on his part. Maestro Weinberger did a great job of holding things together and the orchestra sounded great. The audience loved the piece and a standing ovation followed.
As an encore Chris stepped to the front of the stage and played the Presto from the Gm solo violin sonata unamplified. It was as fast or faster as any version from a modern violinist and, despite the speed, very musical as well. More ovations and then Chris sang a slow Gillian Welch song with mandolin accompaniment. I would have preferred more Bach but he won me [and the audience] over.
Introducing the Bach piece he said something like: ‘No matter who you are, Bach is always better!’
Chris said that this was the 13th time that the concerto has been performed. I hope there will be many more.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.
