Oregon Music News

The Portland Symphonic Choir, with Oregon Symphony members, conducted by Stephen Zopfi

The lush romantic sounds of Beethoven meshed with the angular, driving, neoclassical musical signatures of Stravinsky in a performance Saturday night featuring the Portland Symphonic Choir under the baton of Stephen Zopfi. Igor Stravinsky’s groundbreaking Symphony of Psalms in the first half of the program was a marvelous mix of the baroque and the modern as only the Russian composer could brew. He liked tinkering  with the works of earlier musicians (think Pulcinella suite with its Italian influences), and this work, so exquisitely rendered by the choir and members of the Oregon Symphony, is a vibrant case in point. A bit like rhubarb and custard: the sweetness of the melodic 19th century combined with the acerbic 20th century sounds made everything richer and more interesting.

Composed for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930, the piece was inspired by Stravinsky’s return to his Orthodox faith. After the initial ominous blast of drum and the composer’s signature oboes (there’s an apocalyptic feel to the first movement), the choir, 120 members in all, moved in with wonderful precision, as one felt  emotional restraint working against building musical tensions. Voices were in top form.

The other highlight of the evening manifested in Beethoven’s popular Fantasia in C minor, with its echoes of his Ninth Symphony. Composed in 1808, the work was fashioned as a chorale finale to a large symphonic work. Par piano concerto part improvisation, and part theme and variations, the vibrant work includes an ambitious piano concerto, here performed with sparkling dexterity by Renato Fabbro. The chorus doesn’t have much to do until the end (it’s so remindful of Ode to Joy), but when the voices finally emerge, we’re in for a  a glorious wall of music. Featured members of the choir were soprano Kari Burgess, soprano Catherine Robinson, mezzo Irene Weldon, tenor Brian Haskins, baritone Phill Hurley and bass Dwight Uphaus. The women displayed sturdy technique, but the men blew us out of the water. The male trio created a sublime resonance.

Two selections that Zopfi described as appetizers were Stravinsky’s shorter piece Chorale Variations on Bach’s Vom Himmel Hoch and Bach’s wonderful Orchestra Suite No. 1, BWV 1066, next to the main courses that were the Fantasia and Symphony of Psalms,   Sometimes the starters are tastier than the entree, and this was the case for me. The Vom Himmel Hoch, Stravinsky’s 1956 piece associated with Christmas and possessing the feel of a cantata,   features the melody carried by the voices in unison, while the composer added new color to this piece associated with Christmas. It had a levity and a weightiness, neatly balanced, with the chorale melody treated as four separate phrases. The trombone added a marvelous frisson of danger.

The Bach is a collection inspired by French country dances, 11 movements in all, and was the only selection performed without the choir. The gavotte, courree, minuet, passepied and other historical dances were articulated by the orchestra with lightness and precision. A happy ending to a mixed bag of music that resonated with us hours later.