50th Season Ends On Resounding Note

Tue., May 14, 1996

Travis Rivers Correspondent

Spokane Symphony, Symphony Chorale and Whitworth Choir Friday and Sunday, the Opera House

The great choral shouts of joyful affirmation that conclude Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony seemed entirely appropriate to end the Spokane Symphony’s 50th season. The orchestra performed the work twice over the weekend, once Friday night and again Sunday afternoon. It was a joy to hear both times.

I had not put Sunday’s matinee on my schedule, but curiosity got the better of me. This was not just an ordinary second performance.

On Saturday, between the two public performances in the Opera House, the orchestra, the combined chorus of the Symphony Chorale and the Whitworth Choir and the solo quartet - soprano Julie Newell, mezzo JoAnne Bouma, tenor Jon Garrison and bass Terry Cook - spent seven hours recording the work.

The intense concentration of a full-scale public concert plus a grueling day of recording can produce either exhilaration or exhaustion. Sunday’s performance showed more of the former, with an elevated sense of confidence and freedom not heard Friday night.

The many fine qualities of Friday’s performance were still present.

Conductor Fabio Mechetti’s view of Beethoven’s complex symphony seems always to have a classical poise despite its “revolutionary” and romantic qualities. I was impressed by the wide range of dynamics and the responsiveness Mechetti elicited from his huge group of performers in making swift changes from a great outburst of sound to the quietest hush, or the reverse. These quick changes achieved their most obvious effect in the choral finale, but they were present throughout the other movements as well.

The program booklet quoted English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ observation on Beethoven’s ability to write music that is “at the same time serious, profound and cheerful.” Time and again Mechetti underscored those qualities.

Two examples from the finale: The introduction of the “Ode to Joy” theme began ever so quietly, then was joined by Lynne Feller’s fine bassoon obbligato in a delightful juxtaposition of nobility and humor. Mechetti was also able to bring a startling logic to the sudden appearance of a serious and intense double fugue coming from nowhere out of a whimsical Turkish march.

These examples could be multiplied.

The orchestra’s playing was significantly less tense and more accurate in Sunday’s performance. Woodwind players who Friday seemed to disagree about the tempo here and there moved toward greater unanimity Sunday.

And the brass, whose Friday performance revealed a scattering of flawed chords and cracked horn notes, remedied most of these gaffes (though not all) on Sunday.

The Symphony Chorale and Whitworth Choir, trained by chorusmaster Randi Ellefson, was impressive as usual. The choristers brought a quiet magic to Beethoven’s meditation on Schiller’s verses about “the star-canopied universe” and exhibited nimble clarity of articulation in the rush of the final exultant praise of joy.

The quartet of vocal soloists was also impressive, from Cook’s commanding bass recitative to Newell’s floating high notes in the final bars of the notoriously difficult cadenza.

The high quality of these performances made a spectacular end to the symphony’s golden anniversary season and makes me look forward to the CD release of the Spokane Symphony’s Beethoven Ninth in August. , DataTimes

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