Orchestra Iowa (previously the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra) presented their next-to-last concert of the season on Sunday, May 18 at the Coralville Center For the Performing Arts. I don’t think it was designed as a symphonic venue; the stage looks a little snug for a full orchestra. But as a venue, it has a lot going for it. It seats 472 — intimate compared to the 1,700-capacity Paramount Theatre, where Orchestra Iowa performed Masterworks VI: A Booming Finale the previous night.
The concert opened with Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico, written in 2002 for the San Francisco Women’s Philharmonic. It’s a restless, frenetic piece that emphasizes the sensual pleasure of percussive sound and modern tonality. The orchestra was equal to the challenge, with Tim Hankewich managing the dynamics for maximum punch in the loud section.
Orchestra Iowa’s own Miko Kominami was the soloist for Lizst’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Kominami’s playing was technically precise, with a light touch in the quiet lyrical passages, confident in the challenging blizzards of notes Lizst wrote to bring virtuosity to the fore. Her technical mastery of the piano allows her to play the music instead of just the notes.
Following the Lizst, Kominami played Liszt’s transcription of the Schubert’s song “Gretchen Am Spinnrade.” She used short hesitations to change the emotional valence of the piece, making it more meditative and melancholy than when it is performed by others.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is a serious challenge both to the player and conductor. Shostakovich wrote it in response to potentially life-threatening criticism from Josef Stalin. It was an overt attempt to get back into the good graces of the fascist state. So there’s a text to the piece — “inspiring” musical themes and military march music — and a subtext of emotional turmoil. Late in life, his life and reputation secure, he wrote, “The rejoicing is forced, created under threat, as in Boris Godunov. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.’”
Before the 20th century, symphonies were composed to fit formal and harmonic rules. The throughline of a piece is clear to players, their parts predictable. In contrast, Shostakovich asks an orchestra and its director to tell two stories at the same time. The uncertainty and conflict of the Fifth Symphony requires more focus. Maestro Hankewich handled the emotional complexity of the piece with grace, and the orchestra was equal to the job.
The Fifth takes on added meaning in the current political climate of the United States, in which the president is trying to pressure American artists and institutions to conform to his vision and tastes. I doubt the Maestro was trying to make a political point by performing this work, but the parallels between Shostakovich’s times and our own were on my mind, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.
The harmonic complexity of the piece is the key to the conflict Shostakovich portrayed. The piece is nominally in C Minor (the key of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), but it never seems to resolve to a C Minor chord. There’s no finality, everything seems suspended in dissonance and unpredictable modulations. The composer uses the rhythms and forms that appealed to the fascists threatening his life, but the notes and harmony he chooses subvert the triumphalism and optimism the fascists demanded of him.
Full disclosure: My father Richard Williams was musical director for Orchestra Iowa from 1970 to 1981, and I played cello for several concerts as a substitute. That bias aside, the Orchestra Iowa of today is really good. The players are equal technically to the most challenging work. The fact that Orchestra Iowa still thrives in Cedar Rapids is a tribute to the love and energy that countless musicians and audience members have put into it.
Classical music might seem to many to be elitist, but it is not. It is the creative flowering of European culture over centuries, and it is an abiding conversation between musicians and audiences. At its best, it embodies our highest ideals. That Orchestra Iowa persists represents a lot of dedication and hard work.
If you want to see a miracle, consider this: Eastern Iowa is able to support two professional bassoonists.
Upcoming event:
Orchestra Iowa Presents: Field of Dreams in Concert (POPS V – film with live orchestra), Veterans Memorial Stadium, Cedar Rapids, Saturday, June 7 at 7 p.m.
