While a sudden fall rain fell outside the Bijou Theatre on Sunday afternoon, those inside may have noticed a little moisture as well. No, not a leaky roof, thank heavens, but rather a tear or two thanks to an affecting performance of Caroline Shaw’s The Mountain That Loved A Bird by the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra. With Maestro Aram Demirjian joined by narrator Laura Beth Wells, this cleverly orchestrated version of the now-classic children’s story by Alice McLerran succeeded in both dramatic storytelling and in musical performance, leaving many in the audience visibly moved by the story and music.
Shaw’s The Mountain That Loved A Bird, from a 2017 Carnegie Hall commission, is rich in percussion effects and in its use of the orchestra to portray characters and moods, something that makes the work a great choice for children. While more conceptual than Prokofiev’s illustrative Peter and the Wolf, Shaw’s work mixes the obvious choice of the flute for the bird theme (beautifully played here by principal flute Devan Jaquez) with the less obvious textural choices for the mountain and the idea of love and friendship. Backed by careful pacing and emphasis by Demirjian and the orchestra, Wells’ narration was a masterful ebb and flow of emotional storytelling that pushed and pulled at the listener, touching on sorrow, loneliness, love—and yes, joy.
To say that this concert offered an eclectic mix of music is an understatement. Demirjian opened the afternoon with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, the “Haffner” symphony. The performance had both the subtlety and energy that one expects, although I would preferred even more of those qualities in the Presto movement and its dramatic finale.
The afternoon closed with Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, an harmonically complex work both in direction and texture, full of virtuosic moments for many of the orchestra’s individual players. The solos appeared in the theme and 10 variations, including harp and cello, spirited flute (Jaquez), clarinet (Gary Sperl), viola (Katherine Gawne), a marvelous duet for oboe (Claire Chenette) and bassoon (Justin Cummings), trumpet and trombone (Phillip Chase Hawkins and Sam Chen, respectively), violin (William Shaub), horn (Jeffery Whaley), and double bass (Steve Benne). The full orchestra took part in the upbeat finale.
