As Maestro Aram Demirjian indicated in his preface of Sunday afternoon’s Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra concert, the programming for it had been done over a year in advance. So, it was both a grand and somber coincidence that the concluding work for the afternoon would be the Rudolph Barshai arrangement of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3 into a Chamber Symphony. Written just after WWII, the work had an eerie connection to the violence currently being perpetrated on Ukraine by Russia. Shostakovich had titled his movements:
- Allegretto: Blithe ignorance of the future cataclysm
- Moderato con moto: Rumblings of unrest and anticipation
- Allegro non tropo: Forces of war unleashed
- Adagio: In memory of the dead
- Moderato: The eternal question: why? and for what?
Scored for flute (Devan Jaquez), oboe (Claire Chenette), English horn (Ayca Yayman), clarinet (Gary Sperl), bassoon (Justin Cummings), harp (Cindy Emory), and strings, this tightly played work features a gorgeous chromaticism that is both playfully happy and seriously somber, a reflection of the wavering emotions of wartime.
The featured work of the afternoon was the J.S. Bach Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043. The soloists were the KSO violinists Rachel Loseke and I-Pei Lin. The minor feel of the concerto was a feast for the two violinists who, nevertheless, infused the work with vibrant energy and a subtle crispness. The duo managed Bach’s trading of solo roles transparently, as well as the clever “stepping back” as the orchestra momentarily dominated the solo line.
For the opening of the concert, Demirjian gathered eight brass and woodwind players for Stravinsky’s Octet from 1923. Scored for flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trombones, and 2 trumpets, this rhythmically challenging work was a feast for this listener—a sonic feast that oozed surprising details from a substantial textural depth.
The next KSO Chamber Classics concert is but one month away on Sunday, April 3. That concert—with a possible mountain flavor—will include the Ives Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting” and Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 “Morning”. The featured instrument on the concert is the dulcimer: Stephen Seifert performing Conni Ellisor’s dulcimer concerto, Blackberry Winter.
