If Father Alex Miller, to whose memory Saturday evening's concert by the Ann Arbor Symphony was dedicated, had been around to hear the orchestra's latest round of music making, I feel sure that just about now he'd be sitting down to pen one of his wonderful epistles of praise and heartfelt thanks.
Since he is gone from this world, let me step into his shoes, though they are far too big for someone like me to fill. In conception, as in execution, Saturday's concert by the A2SO at the Michigan Theater was top of the line, a pleasure from start to finish, showcasing the musicians - and their master, Music Director Arie Lipsky, and mezzo-soprano guest soloist Alison Tupay - performing with verve, sheen and a keen ear for the details of musical style.
It is a pleasure to watch an orchestra really coming into its own; Saturday, that pleasure began with an ideal vehicle for showing the instrumentalists' prowess, Stravinsky's delightful fanfare entry into his neo-classical period, "Pulcinella Suite,'' derived from his ballet score for Diaghilev, "Pulcinella."
Going for Baroque - Stravinsky was inspired by the music of Pergolesi here - Lipsky appropriately reduced the orchestra to about half its usual numbers for Stravinsky's eight delicious, dance-y, color-filled movements. The playing was extraordinarily fine here, with solos full of character by Concertmaster Aaron Berofsky and members of the winds and brass singing out for all they were worth - which is to say, quite a lot. Maestro and musicians made the most of the work's spacious scoring, which highlights the different instrumental choirs and their timbres and tessituras; and there was no question of not "getting" Stravinsky's piquant 20th century harmonic inflections and his broad slide-trombone humor.
Joining the orchestra for a true foray into the Baroque, in a suite (arranged by Lipsky) from Handel's 1735 opera "Ariodante," were the University of Michigan's fabulous harpsichordist Edward Parmentier and guest soloist mezzo-soprano Alison Tupay.
Tupay, 27, recently made a New York City Opera debut and has an Opera Theatre of St. Louis apprenticeship behind her as well as participation in the prestigious Merola Opera Program. You could see her put all that to good work as she made a concert performance of the two famous mezzo arias from "Ariodante" - "Scherza infida" and "Dopo notte" - come alive from the first note, and not merely her first note, but the orchestra's.
From the lyric tragedy of the first aria through the triumphant fireworks of the last, Tupay was in character as the opera's hero (the role is one of many "trouser roles" for mezzos); her dark-colored, firmly focused sound took her from the depths to the heights, even as she fluidly and expressively negotiated Handel's virtuosic ornamented lines. Under Lipsky's command, the orchestra, still reduced in size, never overshadowed Tupay, but neither did it underplay its character role nor hold back in the crisp overture or dance episodes Lipsky retained to form this suite.
With the full orchestra on stage for the second half, it was time to leave the Baroque and jump to Romanticism in full flower, with Schumann's Symphony in C Major, Op. 61. While I find this symphony to have its longueurs, I also appreciate the vigor and its restless power of the first and final movements, the Mendelssohnian quicksilver of its scherzo and the poetry of its adagio. The orchestra gave its all to the work's considerable charms and glories. The strings played with sheen (and speed) to make any orchestra (and audience) glad; the brass and winds (kudos to oboist Kristen Beene and clarinetist Brian Bowman) did themselves proud.
It was a moving and incisive performance, and a fitting finish to an evening of great playing.
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©2002-2008
Ann Arbor Symphony
220 E Huron St., Suite 470
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
(734) 994-4801
