Variations Symphony Adeptly Delves Into A Single Musical Framework

Spokane Symphony Orchestra Sunday, Nov. 7, Spokane Opera House

The Spokane Symphony opened its Symphony at The Met series Sunday with a program of variations.

Devoting a whole concert to any single musical form may appear risky, but conductor Fabio Mechetti and soloist Caio Pagano made an adventurous afternoon exploring one of music’s time-honored structures.

Mechetti and the orchestra began Sunday’s survey with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme by Corelli.” The work originally was written for piano, but Sunday’s version was Corneliu Dumbraveanu’s intriguing transcription for orchestra.

Dumbraveanu rarely uses the distinctive character Rachmaninoff gave his own orchestral works. Instead the Romanian arranger employs a rich palette of orchestral colors and an attempt to duplicate Rachmaninoff’s highly pianistic effects.

Most of Rachmaninoff’s piano writing converted well in Dumbraveanu’s orchestration, but some, like the harp cadenza near the end, sounded strained.

Frederic Chopin’s Variations on Mozart’s “La ci darem la mano” is a work every music student knows about, but few (myself included) have ever heard in performance. It was these variations that caused Robert Schumann to begin a review, “Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!” in praise of the 17-year-old Chopin’s phenomenal piano technique and vivid musical imagination.

Sunday’s soloist shared technique and imagination with the composer. Pagano was able to personify Chopin’s relish in the command of the work’s fearsome difficulties as well as the sheer pleasure of Chopin’s playful toying with Mozart’s coy little tune.

Even more formidable was Pagano’s command of Franck’s “Variations symphoniques.” These variations on two original tunes contain much more serious fun than the glitter of the Chopin set.

Pagano could be lyrically somber, as in the introductory statements of the two themes. And he could be brilliantly elegant, as in the fleet, florid piano writing Franck uses to surround the organlike orchestral writing.

Even in the most heroic parts Pagano never battered the piano, a grave danger in this work. Instead his rhetoric was aristocratic and firm, befitting the work’s noble concept.

The orchestral parts of the Chopin Variations are discreet (“inconsequential” is probably too strong a word), but the Franck orchestration is full and demanding. In both works Mechetti and the orchestra provided their customary able partnership.

The concert concluded with the Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera’s lustrous “Variaciones concertantes.”

Written in 1953, the work opened simply, with the harp sounding the notes of the open strings of the guitar accompanying a meditative theme played by the solo cello. It ended with a rowdy, South Americanized tribute to “Rite of Spring.” In between, each principal player in the orchestra brought the character of his or her own instrument to one of the variations.

Despite a few jittery moments, such as the uncertain intonation in the variation for string bass, the musicians of the orchestra gave an impressive account of this difficult work. It fully justified Mechetti’s choice of it as a rousing conclusion to the afternoon.