EDMONDS – Talk about opening night gems.
For its season opener Monday, the Cascade Symphony welcomed a packed house to the sparkling gem that is its new home – the spectacularly remodeled Edmonds Center for the Arts. The symphony rose to the occasion, sounding better than ever.
Opening its doors to the public for the very first time, the sleek Art Moderne relic showed off its many splendors: fine acoustics, period-inspired stylized lettering to direct patrons, aubergine walls, pumpkin seats, the proscenium arch with plaster relief detail sharply etched under glittering lighting, and an original fir ceiling left exposed for all to admire.
The audience turned out in droves dressed in an eclectic array that ran from silk to denim. One could catch snapshot vignettes of key players in the history of the symphony and the center. Among the crowd was Robert Anderson, conductor emeritus, with principal cellist Norma Dermond, whom he inspired to take up the instrument; Snohomish County Councilman Gary Nelson; Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakensen; and Frank DeMeiro, director of Sno-King Community Chorale.
The nicely balanced program of light classics featured several shorter pieces, many first written for piano, then arranged for orchestra, as well as the Concerto in G Minor for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch. The concerto featured soloist Elisa Barston, acting principal second violinist of the Seattle Symphony.
Before welcoming Barston, the symphony performed Glinka’s “Valse-Fantaisie,” a celebratory work with a country festival feel about it. Barston, who told music director Michael Miropolsky that she started playing violin at the age of 31/2, proceeded to dazzle the crowd as she made her 250-year-old Italian violin virtually sing. Neither she nor the orchestra ever faltered during this demanding work.
After intermission, Miropolsky resumed position at the podium and bounded without pause into the energetic Slavonic Dance in G minor by Dvorak. From there, the symphony performed two world premieres of works in miniature, one by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, the other by Russian Sergei Rachmaninoff, and both arranged by Daniel Tchalik.
Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1, with its challenging tempo and whistle of woodwinds, was up next, followed by Johann Strauss’ “Roses From the South.”
The evening finale was a nod to theatrical pops in a medley of Frederick Loewe tunes from “My Fair Lady.” Here, Miropolsky showed an affinity for theatrical conducting, his Chaplinesque movements in sync with the orchestral sways and arcs. The orchestra performed Loewe’s pieces alternately with a straight rhythm before injecting some Broadway syncopation and fun percussion effects. “I Could Have Danced All Night” was the perfect closer – for this orchestra easily could have played all night, and done so exceedingly well at that.
For an encore, the symphony performed the polka “Thunder and Lightning,” with a kettle drum imitating the sound of rolling thunder.
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