orchestra21

November 1, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls, IA

Samuel Adler – A Bridge to Understanding [2008]
Samuel Adler – Beyond the Pale for clarinet [2003] with Samuel Adler, guest conductor
Mendelssohn – Symphony no. 3, ‘Scottish’

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‘Birthday Fête’ offers surprises
By Scott Cawelti
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
November 5, 2008

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony’s November 1 ‘Birthday Fête’ concert offered an evening of gratifying surprises for an intensely appreciative audience at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. ‘Expect the Unexpected’ has become the orchestra’s slogan and this evening’s concert made it come to life.

I’m always mildly surprised by the superb quality of this regional orchestra. Orchestra members consistently play far above what we might expect from performers with other day jobs who never get quite enough ensemble rehearsal time. It almost never shows. Bravo to them all for offering such high-quality playing every concert. The principal players deserve special credit for their leadership, and several offered excellent playing during this particular concert, including oboist Tom Barry, flutist Claudia Anderson, trumpeter Randy Grabowski, and concertmaster Anita Tucker.

The concert began with Adler’s 2008 piece, ‘A Bridge to Understanding: A Suite for Orchestra,’ in five movements, all of which offered cascading dissonances and tonalities which make it truly contemporary. Like other Adler creations, ‘Bridge’ brings a new energy to familiar folk melodies by alternating solos among the various instrumental sections and with driving, complex rhythms.

Adler, who turned 80 this year, has composed more than 400 widely acclaimed orchestral and choral works. He spent most of a week at UNI and attended Saturday night as the honoree. Weinberger introduced a surprise ‘gift’ for Adler in the form of a celebratory composition performed by a string quartet from the orchestra by Philip Wharton, a former Iowan and composition student of Adler’s. Violinists Beth Hoffman and Mary Grey, violist Kathleen Sihler, and cellist Suzanne Bullard played this fine offering, which sang with the same energy that Adler brings to his own compositions.

The orchestra jumped back 166 years to Felix Mendelssohn’s Third [‘Scottish’] Symphony, which debuted in 1842. It’s a powerful work with echoes of Scottish melodies and dance rhythms, striking dynamic range and a finale that ends with martial rhythms and triumphal cadences. Music Director Jason Weinberger chose to direct this 37-minute symphony without the usual breaks between the four movements, and the orchestra played with a contagious, joyful energy that brought the audience to its feet.

The major surprise of the evening, though, and probably the whole season, came when Adler himself conducted his ‘Beyond the Pale: A Portrait of a Klezmer’ with Weinberger performing the clarinet solo. I’ve attended dozens of orchestra performances, but I’ve never seen a composer conduct one of his own pieces featuring a solo played by the orchestra’s conductor. Unexpected indeed. The piece was utterly charming and ably played. ‘Beyond the Pale,’ though just 11 minutes long, offered major challenges to the soloist, and Weinberger proved up to the task. This standing ovation was genuine, and genuinely deserved.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.