Starker Delivers Fine Performance

Spokane Symphony Orchestra with cellist Janos Starker Friday at the Opera House

Spokane gets too few opportunities to hear great musicians like Janos Starker. In fact, there aren’t many musicians like Janos Starker - a man who plays the cello as though it were a part of his body and an extension of his mind and heart.

Before Starker’s appearance, conductor Fabio Mechetti opened Friday’s concert with John Corigliano’s “Voyage.” The work is the composer’s string orchestra arrangement of his choral setting of Baudelaire’s seductive “L’Invitation au voyage.” This brief work gently evokes Baudelaire’s refrain, promising his lover “There, all is beauty, order, luxury, calm and sensual pleasure.”

After that quiet beginning came Starker’s compelling performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. He must have played this concerto hundreds of times in his long career. But Starker never coasted on that experience. At every moment, his concentration seemed as intense as at a debut. And his legendary technique was as secure as ever.

The soloist’s lifelong experience did allow Starker the pleasure of small freedoms such as the sly humor in his reintroduction of the theme near the end of the finale and his delight in sharing Dvorak’s dialogues with the orchestral soloists. Dvorak achieved marvels of orchestration in his use of pairs of woodwinds throughout this concerto. And the playing of the Spokane winds was very fine, as was Margaret Wilds’ lyrical horn introducing the work’s second theme and the beautiful conversation between Starker’s cello and concertmaster Kelly Farris’ violin in the finale.

Mechetti’s accompaniment was excellent. Only occasionally did I wish the orchestra were playing a bit softer, but then important details of the music would have been missed. The orchestral part of this work is symphonically full, and the sheer size of the Opera House acts like a sponge to the sound of midrange solo instruments like the cello. Starker refused to yield to the temptation to force his tone, which remained beautifully elegant even in the loudest passages.

Following intermission came Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3. The performance was dedicated to the memory of the symphony’s 37-year veteran trombonist, John Baker, who died Nov. 10.

I wish that I liked this work. The Third Symphony has all the ingredients Copland was famous for - melodies that stride as wide as Paul Bunyan, harmonies that suggest the wide-open spaces, rhythms that can dance like a cowboy or glide quietly as a Quaker gentlewoman. The orchestration is full of delicate touches that give way to the full artillery of brass and percussion. For me, though, all these gestures seem merely introductions or endings to a main idea that never shows up.

Personal reservations confessed, I can only add that Mechetti and the orchestra gave an outstanding account of Copland’s demanding score, and Friday’s audience loved it.