If there was a persuasive argument to be made ― and there is – for the excellence of Walter Piston, the Boca Raton Symphonia made it Sunday afternoon.
And they did so in a highly enjoyable, expertly played overall concert that featured not only a welcome programming of a fine work by that estimable American composer, but a standout young violinist making his way through one of the most beloved concertos in the repertoire.
Dan Zhu, a Beijing-born violinist and former classmate of pianist Lang Lang, made his public debut as a concerto soloist at age 9 back home in China with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and on Sunday at the Roberts Theater, he revisited that work with the Symphonia and its director, Philippe Entremont.
Zhu is a first-rate player, a musician who clearly knows his way around the fingerboard and has cleared the concerto’s technical hurdles. He played with a strong, steely, accurate tone, and in the softer moments, added warmth and generous vibrato.
He also was unafraid to try some interpretive details that gave the performance real personality, such as a vigorous spiccato on the downward curve of the melody just before the finale’s coda; it added a spirit of athleticism to the overall enthusiasm of the closing bars. This was a violinist who has mastered the concerto fully, who can do what he wants with it, and whose approach to the music was distinctive enough to make it memorable.
Entremont and the orchestra accompanied Zhu carefully and well, though he had to push them in the opening of the last movement when they lagged behind. The size of the Symphonia was ideal for Mendelssohn’s orchestration, and that helped the music sound livelier somehow.
The Mendelssohn was on the first half of the program, with the second devoted to two American works, beginning with Piston’s Sinfonietta. It was a pleasure to hear this piece, written in 1941 and a three-movement composition of consummate craftsmanship.
It has been said that Piston’s music lacks a high melodic profile, but that judgment could be handed down against any number of composers, and in Piston’s case, it blinds us to his very real merits as a writer. He is a composer who expresses himself in numerous wide-ranging techniques and makes them all sound natural.
In the first movement of the Sinfonietta, for example, a mysterious opening leads to a landscape in which Bachian counterpoint coexists with jazz-style syncopation, but each transitions seamlessly to the next, which is no small feat. The orchestra sounded smooth and cool, as well as alive to all the dynamic details of the movement, particularly the very quiet close.
There was fine work by solo oboe and the cellos in the somber, intense slow movement, which built gradually and effectively from relative serenity into darkness, and the chipper finale had a nice, light lilt to it, even when it expanded out into a fugue toward the end. This is an excellent piece of music that should be heard with greater frequency, and not just on programs of American music.
A much-played American classic, written in the same decade, closed the concert: the Appalachian Spring suite of Aaron Copland, one of this composer’s signature works. The suite was performed in its original 13-instrument guise by members of the Symphonia; there is a full orchestra version, and while purists will contend that the smaller complement of instruments is preferable, the program should have indicated to the audience that the symphonic concert they had attended was going to be a chamber music concert at the end.
The musicians played it quite well, in any case. Aside from a slightly wayward flute solo during the return of the opening music, this was an energetic, attractive reading of the suite. The Roberts Theater is not ideal for small-scale music, though, and there were times when the music was swallowed up a bit by the venue. And there were slight miscues such as the piano and orchestra not ending together at one moment in the Simple Gifts section, which might have had to do with the piano sitting to the left of the band rather than at the rear of it.
This is tricky music that changes time a good deal, and whose basic pulse changes so often that it’s hard for conductors to keep everyone together. But Entremont did a decent job, and there was a light touch throughout that kept the music from striking a note of false grandiosity.
The concert opened with the Il Signor Bruschino overture of Rossini. String ensemble was quite good, vital for this exposed music, as was the unity of the whole band throughout. The music was bubbly and cleanly rendered, and the orchestra the large house heard is a strong, able ensemble that is noticeably tighter than in years past.
And in the Piston Sinfonietta, it showed itself to be a symphonic organization that can play a good American modernist and bring its listeners a true sense of discovery.
The next Boca Raton Symphonia concert is set for Sunday, Jan. 27, at the Roberts Theater and will feature the young cellist Julian Schwarz and his father, former Seattle Symphony director Gerard Schwarz, as guest conductor. The program includes the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 (in E-flat, Op. 107), J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 (in D, BWV 1068), Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style (D. 591), and the Miracle Symphony (No. 96 in D) of Haydn. Call 866-687-4201 or visit bocasymphonia.org for more information.