Spy Review: A Symphonic Night to Remember by Steve Parks

Thursday night’s opener of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra series of three concerts – the first since New Year’s Eve – felt like a new experience the moment the audience filed into and nearly filled the acoustically friendly Church of God sanctuary in Easton. We first noticed that very few of us wore a mask as we entered. For the first time in almost two years, none were required, though we were required to show proof of COVID vaccination.

MSO music director Julien Benichou.

But the second and far more profound experience was the addition to the printed program announced by MSO music director Julien Benichou. The full orchestra of 34 masked musicians, not counting two guest soloists for the evening, played the Ukrainian national anthem. Without being asked, all those in attendance, who were able, stood together in solidarity as if it were our own national anthem.

It is no criticism to write now that this moment was the most moving of the two-hour concert. And when Benichou’s microphone failed just before intermission, guest solo cellist Julian Schwarz took over to announce in his booming voice that there would be an encore to the performance of Saint-Saens’ Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. It was an elegy fitting for this tragic chapter in geopolitical history, performed with weeping cello and orchestral strings. 

So, now for the scheduled program. The maestro chose something brief, something familiar to turn our attention from war and suffering – Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute. It was exciting just to see the stage filled with musicians rather than portions of a full orchestra to allow for safe spacing. The players did not disappoint in conveying their instrumental glee to express Mozart’s jaunty melodies and rhythms that went by in a six-minute flash.

Next came a selection that turned Mozart’s Magic Flute into a perfect intro to the early 20th-century Concertino for Flute and Orchestra by French composer Cecile Chaminade of whom it was written: “She is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.” Inspired by a bit of romantic intrigue, Chaminade was commissioned to write a challenging examination piece for flute students of the Paris Conservatoire. But she supposedly wrote it instead to punish her flutist lover who forsook her to marry another woman. Maybe that’s why it took a young woman to play the solo part so beautifully. Guila Bilardi, who recently won first prize in the MSO’s Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra, carried the solo portions of the full-orchestra concertino with a confident range that was both melodious and meditative. (The CYSO performs in concert on March 19 in Bowie.)

Schwarz, the next guest soloist and an internationally acclaimed cellist, warned the audience that Saint-Saens’ Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2 was both “sparkling and new” to him, implying that this was his concert debut in performing a piece said to push his instrument to its limits. In Schwarz’s case, this was a 1743 Neapolitan cello. Passages of the first movement, which some regard as prayerful, struck me as a restive search for space to rest from the cellist’s heavy lifting with a light touch as the orchestra plays a supportive role. But there’s no rest in the second-movement scherzo, which opens at a furious pace before settling into a solo cadenza before a robust orchestral return to the opening melody at the end.

Schumann’s problematic 40-minute Symphony No. 2 followed intermission. While it was refreshing to hear a rarely performed 19th-century symphony of European pedigree, it becomes apparent why Schumann is known as a brilliant composer for piano who struggled with the demands of an orchestral symphony. It could not have helped that Schumann suffered severe bouts of depression, probably due to what would now be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, while toiling on Symphony No. 2 in 1846.

A somber first movement with a pell-mell finish leads to a scherzo suggesting a playful carnival motif accented by a four-note trumpet call. The third movement shows Schumann’s legendary melodic skills, delivered in sonata form first by violins, led by concertmaster Iris Chen, and then picked up by oboes (Alicia Maloney and Kathy Caesar). Woodwinds, brass, and timpani herald the final movement to a march theme before a cello- and bass-led melody culminates in celebratory gusto that doesn’t quite tie up Schumann’s loose ends.

Still, the spirited performance capped a night to remember at this spiritual symphony hall.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

“Saint-Saens 101” concert in Easton, featuring cello soloist Julian Schwarz plus pieces by Mozart, Schumann, and Chaminade, will be performed again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 12, Epworth United Methodist Church, Rehoboth Beach, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13, Community Church at Ocean Pines. midatlanticsymphony.org