NHSO Creates A Romantic Panorama

It is one thing to go to a performance by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, or any other orchestra, to witness a subdued spectacle — 50 to 60 musicians on one stage, working to convey a piece of art with sometimes dizzying levels of interconnected parts. That was of course on display in Friday’s performance, featuring works by Coleridge-Taylor, Chopin, and Brahms, featuring Orli Shaham as the soloist for Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor.

It is another to go in with an understanding of the context in which the composers lived, or around the composition or creation of the work. It is to the NHSO’s credit that the organization not only provides quite accessible but informative program notes — now available online via a QR code — but also that Music Director Alisdair Neale introduces each piece with a few brief remarks, offering ideas on the themes or musical patterns that less-familiar audience members can listen for as the work unfolds. This is an important part of the work that classical musicians do to attract and retain listeners in a time where the volume of competition is staggering.

Neale cited all three works as examples of Romanticism, the music of which paralleled the movement in art and poetry. Each piece was from a different point in the era, Chopin being chronologically earliest. And each certainly showed a different approach to the themes and imagery of romanticism, although there were broad similarities in how each composer approached harmony. It was nice to have a panoramic view of the movement.

The program began with the Ballade in A Minor from Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries until his early death at 37 from pneumonia. In his remarks, Neale lamented that Coleridge-Taylor’s voice was cut short, given the quality of the works he left behind, but he did enjoy some success both in his native England as well as in America during his life. 

The Ballade in A minor, which also exists as a piano arrangement, was a tremendous concert starter. Energetic strings burst forth with syncopated melodies, while closely voiced brass chords propelled the opening section along. The orchestration has a welcome transparency, especially in the use of woodwinds, and in many cases there are several groupings of instruments playing the same melody or figure, but maintaining a clear balance between them. 

The Ballade form seems to accommodate an almost narrative sense of ​‘scenes’ as it moves from section to section, and the orchestra navigated each of these scene changes with a deft touch, one subdued section which began in Eb being especially notable for its lushness, staying respectfully close to the line of sentimentality without crossing it. This added significant impact to the close of the piece, which reprised the opening melody.to great effect.

As Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor unfolded, nearly three minutes of orchestral explorations descending from the high strings through the rest of the orchestra, you could see pianist Orli Shaham getting into the proceedings, moving and nodding along with the stirring writing that preceded her entrance. It also sounds like almost nothing else in the entire piece, seeming like someone else’s voice introducing Chopin’s true love, the piano. At that point, the orchestra often becomes a harmonic extension of the piano, most often in the form of soft strings catching and sustaining harmonies that closely follow the solo part.

Shaham struck this balance well, performing with a clarity of tone and a subtle rubato, a rhythmic push-pull that is certainly easier for a solo musician to pull off than an entire orchestra. Kudos to the orchestra for navigating this along to the dual lead of Neale’s baton and Shaham’s expressive phrasing, especially in the third movement, where the interplay between soloist and orchestra became more intricate. It should also be noted that this was accomplished in a short time, as the NHSO only last week announced that the originally scheduled soloist, Joyce Wang, had to pull out of her scheduled performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto due to an injury.

After a short intermission, the NHSO brought the concert to an energetic close with the 40 minute Symphony No. 2 from Johannes Brahms. While the composer was active in the Romantic era, his symphonic work reflects the organization and structure of the classical period that preceded it, making him a frequent choice on orchestral programs.

The length of the multi-movement symphonic form can be daunting to casual listeners, and even to this relatively trained musician, the structural intricacies of all of the melodic and motivic development can be hard to grab onto in the moment. As soon as you think you understand one idea it may have already developed into something else, or changed keys. It can be a coin toss as to whether a listener would perceive this as restlessness or genius.

Regardless of where that coin lands, the orchestra tackled this piece with great energy and clarity. The second movement notably featured a very striking section beginning with a short solo for horn that continued as various woodwinds and string groupings joined, creating a truly memorable build in intensity and texture. That clarity was especially welcome in the more sparsely orchestrated moments in the third movement, and gave extra punch to the breakneck interplay of the final movement.

And so audiences went back out into a warm rainy night — one that could easily have inspired the latent romantics in the audience.

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra next performs their Holiday Extravaganaza on Dec. 17 at 3 m., at the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at SCSU, and Dec. 18 at 3 m., at Shelton High School. Visit the NHSO’s website for tickets and information.