For the previous two seasons, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra music director Aram Demirjian has concluded those seasons with programs that mixed repertoire stalwarts with exciting newer works that had the effect of flinging open the door to new possibilities. For this season’s finale concerts this past weekend, however, Demirjian and the orchestra seemed to indicate that they have already arrived at that new destination where familiar old and intriguing newer music happily co-exist when performed with enthusiasm and to an audience willingly along for the ride. To that end, Demirjian’s four selections for the evening created a captivating and dynamic, but relaxed, atmosphere that served to showcase both individual instrumental performances and the orchestra’s impressive ensemble accomplishments.
Michael Schachter’s 2014 work, Five—Six—Seven—Eight, originally written for the contemporary chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, opened the concert—and with a slightly odd surprise. Titled in reference to dance’s common count-in, the work explores the personality of different dance styles and rhythms with a deliberate brightness and joy. The work has some rather magical moments, including a beautifully performed exposed viola passage (KSO principal Kathryn Gawne) that was echoed by textures from violin (concertmaster William Shaub) and celeste (Emi Kagawa).
Demirjian’s surprise was the unannounced inclusion of dancers from Go Contemporary Dance Works to accompany the four movements with choreography from the company’s artistic director, Lisa McKee. With her dancers stylishly and intriguingly costumed, McKee’s movements for the excellent ensemble of dancers—performed on the stage apron in front of the orchestra—were lyrical, richly descriptive, and exhilarating, characteristics it shared with Schachter’s score. Oddly, though, the actual combination of visual movement and music seemed a bit too much, with each gently fighting the other for the audience’s attention.
It’s impossible to discuss the classical guitar repertoire without immediately mentioning Joaquín Rodrigo’s 1939 concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez. Equally impossible, it seems, is mentioning the Rodrigo without mentioning guitarist Jason Vieaux who joined Demirjian and the orchestra for the admittedly oh-so familiar work. Despite the fact that Vieaux probably performs the difficult concerto a dozen or more times a season, his performance was as fresh and briskly detailed as it was confidently and solidly rendered.
The concerto’s second slow (Adagio) movement, self-described by Rodrigo as a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments, settles over one like a comfortable blanket. The gentle melancholy arrived by way of the English horn, beautifully played by Elizabeth Telling, along with haunting echoes from bassoon (Aaron Apaza), oboe (Claire Chenette), and horn.
On Friday evening, Vieaux was coaxed into an encore—his own arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood.”
The second half of the concert invited the audience in for a twin feast of orchestral color—a pairing of Ravel’s landscape of Spain, Rapsodie espagnole, and George Gershwin’s take on Paris, the amazing An American in Paris. With the stage now filled with extra winds and percussion, Demirjian took an unhurried tempo through the Ravel, which allowed the lyrical moments of character to breathe and soar against the river-like rhythms. The KSO strings were markedly luscious, and with a definite edge of clarity that was an impressive show of ensemble-ness. And again, Ms. Telling, who had quite the evening of notable moments, offered English horn passages that were calmly elegant. The concluding movement, Feria, was a beautiful logistical contrast, both in color and rhythm that broke open with surges from expanded woodwinds, punctuated by percussion surprises.
Few works seem more familiar to Americans listeners of almost any genre than Gershwin’s jazzy symphonic poem from 1928, An American in Paris. Despite the cinematic ubiquity of the 1951 Gene Kelly movie musical and recent theatre productions, the work survives as a great concert work that is a simultaneous layering of both musical impressionism and expressionism, one that takes the audience on a intoxicating tug-of-war ride, boldly assaulting and gently soothing, running and then pausing nostalgically to take in the scenery.
Gershwin’s addictive melodies bound together by the endlessly entertaining orchestral color flow in a somewhat episodic style, making the work a showcase of individual instruments, especially in the bluesy and jazzy sections. KSO principal trumpet Phillip Chase Hawkins opened ears with his fabulous wailing trumpet solos. And then, there are those taxi horns along with all the other percussion colors.
Of course, a bit of nostalgia is mandatory with season finale concerts which the KSO accomplishes with mentions of musician milestones with the orchestra. On this occasion, cellist Donald Grohman received a deserved standing ovation for, yes, 50 years with the orchestra.
