The Brown University Orchestra's Thursday night performance of works by Verdi, Nielsen and Bartok highlighted the orchestra members' gifts not only as an ensemble but also as soloists.
The concert, performed again on Friday, began with the overture to the opera "La Forza del Destino" by Giuseppe Verdi. The overture has become an orchestral staple not just because it catalogues the best tunes from an opera often politely described as "sprawling," but also because it gives individual musicians and sections an opportunity to showcase their talents.
A duet for clarinet and harp was sensitively handled, as were the oboe and flute solos, and the violins made bold gestures out of the swelling dynamics. Guest conductor Eric Culver definitely guided the piece in the "forza" direction, bringing out the assertive brass calls. The brass presence occasionally overwhelmed the strings, resulting in some balance problems that made the ensemble as a whole less cohesive.
Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto followed, featuring Sam Terman '09, winner of the orchestra's Concerto Competition, as the soloist. The piece is a study in contrasts, alternating between E major and F major, two "rival keys," as Culver wrote in the program notes. The concerto begins with an earthy dance, passes through storms of dissonance and periods of calm and finally dissolves into quiet.
Terman mastered the fiercely difficult solo part and even gave it a jazzy charm that complemented the concerto's roughness. In a piece that is all about unexpected turns and sudden changes, Terman was always poised, bouncing and dancing with the complex rhythms. His duets with the solo snare drum - played by Aaron Jones '09 - were playful and spirited. The orchestra was excellent, restrained when necessary but also ready to dig into the concerto's thorny sections.
After intermission, the orchestra left its supporting role and returned to center stage to play Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra." This intensely challenging work, unlike traditional concertos, treats each musician in the ensemble as the soloist. The orchestra proved more than up to the task.
The brass fanfares in the first movement were skillfully played, cutting through the atmospheric string chords. In the second movement "Game of Pairs," pairs of woodwinds passed dance-like themes back and forth while the string players dealt with a score that was schizophrenic in its mood changes. The "Elegia" that followed was one of the highlights of the concert, both passionate and somber. The orchestra played the fourth movement with both lyricism and precision before launching into the sweeping, virtuosic fifth movement - ten minutes of perpetual motion ending with an impressive, brass-driven finale.
