Yes, Tonal. Have a Problem With That?

 

 

Yes, Tonal. Have a Problem With That?

 

By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

Published: January 29, 2007

 

It seems strange, so many decades after the postwar avant-garde first gathered in Darmstadt, Germany, how often the words unabashedly and tonal are still linked. Given that composers now enthusiastically write in wildly diverse idioms, calling a piece “unabashedly tonal” seems almost as odd as referring to a work as “bashfully dissonant.”

The recent orchestral works of the popular Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon are certainly primarily tonal, as well as imaginative, richly orchestrated and accessible, which presumably explains why “Blue Cathedral” is one of the most frequently performed new works in the United States. The Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra gave a dynamic reading of the piece during its concert on Friday night at Carnegie Hall, led by Robert Spano.

Mr. Spano, the enthusiastic music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is a 1983 Oberlin Conservatory graduate and now associate professor of conducting there. He has championed Ms. Higdon’s works (in performance and on recordings) and transmitted his excitement to the young musicians. They played “Blue Cathedral” (written in 1999 during the first anniversary of the death of the composer’s brother) with skill and understanding, vividly illuminating the Coplandesque swaths of color that build to an intense, optimistic climax.

A performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C (K. 503), which followed on the program, was more tentative. The work’s architecture wasn’t quite coherent, and textures were muddy, although the soloist, the pianist Pedja Muzijevic (not an Oberlin graduate), gave a competent, tastefully ornamented rendition. He ably played an unusually elaborate cadenza by Philipp Karl Hoffmann, Mozart’s contemporary.

But the uncertainty the musicians seemed to feel during the Mozart disappeared during a stellar performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, which concluded the concert. The contrasting moods of the five movements were probingly explored, and there was no weak link in the band. The fiery, polished strings and excellent woodwinds and brass all confidently enjoyed their chance to shine in Bartok’s egalitarian concerto.

Before the concert Oberlin’s dean, David H. Stull, pointed out that New York is the primary destination for Oberlin graduates. On Friday night they loyally turned up in full force, packing Carnegie Hall with enthusiastic supporters.