As Maestro Aram Demirjian suggested in his preface to last Sunday’s Part 1 of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s “Cosmos Festival,” it was merely a happy coincidence that aligned the week’s themed concerts with the event of the solar eclipse. Nevertheless, whether planned or an accident, it worked out well for both the orchestra and the audience, obviously drawn to each other in the inevitable attraction of musical gravity.
Although last evening’s Masterworks concert—Part 2 of the KSO’s Cosmos Festival— had the massive orchestral suite The Planets by Gustav Holst as its focus, there were other attractions to be had. Demirjian opened the evening with Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute, taking a pace and balance that vaguely suggested early Beethoven rather than the theatrical Mozart—but not unpleasantly so. In fact, when one considers that less than a decade separates Mozart’s opera from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, perhaps there is room for argument.
Co-commissioned by the KSO and the Harrisburg and Tucson Symphony Orchestras, Jonathan Leshnoff’s Piano Concerto is finally getting its hearing in Knoxville. The 2019 work, written for and with the input of pianist Joyce Yang, had been previously programmed for September 2022, but had to be re-scheduled due to an indisposed Ms. Yang.
Avoiding the composer’s program notes, I instantly found myself drawn to the work, its tonal orchestral style and variety had a pleasant persistence and romance. Its repeated phrases made both rhythmic and textural statements, but ones that did not overwhelm or make undue demands. The first and fourth movements are marked “Fast” and, indeed they are, but that energy feels necessary and important. It was in these movements that Ms. Yang’s own energy, and miraculous tonal touch, seemed perfectly matched to Leshnoff’s inventiveness.
On the second half of the concert, Demirjian offered up Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, appropriately subtitled “a Cosmic Landscape,” as an intellectual prelude to The Planets. Its contrasts of tonal honey and dissonant vinegar were an appetizer for the Holst feast of instrumental delights that followed.
Those delights are many in Holst’s The Planets, even if the work’s familiarity lulls one into complacent listening on occasion. Accompanied by projected NASA visuals that have been selected and animated by artist Adrian Wyard are admittedly awe-inspiring at times, tediously repetitive at others. The argument arises as to whether visuals enhance or distract from the vivid and luscious orchestration from an expanded instrumental force.
“Mars” introduces the scheme with a moderate tempo that draws one in and sets up the idea of an accelerating urgency. “Venus” was sensually flirtatious, beginning with Jeffery Whaley’s shimmering horn solo, followed by silvery from touches of flute, clarinet, and harp, and finally made solid by solo passages from Concertmaster William Shaub and Principal Cello Andy Bryenton. I always find “Mercury” enchanting, but have to shut out the flitting visuals to fully enjoy the movement.
“Jupiter” (“the Bringer of Jollity”) looms large in Holst’s scheme, its energy somehow satisfying. “Saturn” made the most of its unrelenting march and “Uranus” bounded rhythmically. “Neptune” soothed any jangled nerves in its lovely conclusion, the women’s voices of the Knoxville Choral Society, its contrast of tonal and dissonant presenting question and answer, peace and violence, before trailing off lost in the vast twinkling of space.
There is one more performance of this concert: Friday evening, April 19, at 7:30 PM at the Tennessee Theatre. Tickets and Information
