Piano virtuoso highlights CSO finale

Published 10:05 am Monday, March 3, 2008

The Cascade Symphony marked the completion of its 2004-2005 season, its 43rd year, with an evening thematically titled “Tragedy and Victory.”

Since taking over the podium, Maestro Michael Miropolsky has enriched Cascade’s programming with his ability to bring in world-class virtuosos as guest artists. Monday night’s final concert of the year continued that enrichment when pianist Mark Salman performed a breathtaking rendition of Saint-Saens’ Concerto No. 2 in D minor.

The concert began with Moussorgsky’s brief introduction to the opera Khovanshchina. The work opened to the sound of the viola section, which gave over to flutes. The main theme sounded on a plaintive oboe.

Miropolsky explained that the piece was unusual in being an introduction rather than an overture. He likened it to a picture of nature, noting its nickname is “Dawn at the Moscow River.”

“It starts with the image of dawn breaking over the river,” Miropolsky said. “Then there are musical pictures of the gold dome shining on a church top, then you hear women singing slightly sad tunes, and finally the bells ringing in church.”

The next offering, Richard Strauss’ “Serenade for Winds in E-flat,” saw the orchestra reconfigured to a chamberlike ensemble. The woodwinds, normally not visible to the audience, came front and center.

Miropolsky described the serenade, which Strauss wrote as a teen, as “gorgeous, short, and absolutely unique.”

Indeed, the sumptuous work was richly sonorous, full of gusto, and thoroughly captivating. There was a wonderful depth of horns, joined by lilting bassoon, as well as clarinet and other woodwinds, for a pleasing polyphony that was well balanced.

Salman, who with his long flowing hair seemed the image of a late 19th or early 20th century artist, immediately brought his Steinway piano to attention with the Saint-Saens concerto’s opening solo cadenza. An eerie, mysterious harmony between violins and piano followed.

The second movement’s quick rondo, with its dancing opening theme, was lively and sprightly, seeming to imitate the leaping of a spring lamb. Here, there was a wonderful, lilting rhythm and astounding runs.

In the furious flash of the presto’s tarantella, each of Salman’s hands showed magnificent strength independently. Quiet plucking strings provided gentle ballast to counteract the piano that seemed ready to take off.

Salman’s performance was marked by a real kinetic charge that was tremendously exciting. His notes seemed to fly out of the keyboard toward the orchestra, like a ball leaping off the bat.

The program finale featured Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 10, Op. 93,” an autobiographical work dripping with the agony of a creative life once stifled by Communist repression, then liberated upon Josef Stalin’s death.

It opened with the very sorrowful tone of cellos and bass in a minor key. The second movement’s intense allegro, depicting a despot, was punctuated by the militaristic beat of timpani. The third and fourth movements’ repetition of D-E flat-C-B seemed to intone the composer’s name, musically affirming Shostakovich prevailing over Stalin.

This symphony demands a lot of listeners emotionally, but rewards them with a musical odyssey that’s both harrowing and triumphant.