A modern approach to a 12th-century work

This weekend’s concerts by the Spokane Symphony saw three debuts at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox: those of conductor Robert Moody, violinist Benjamin Beilman and composer Christopher Theofanidis, whose composition “Rainbow Body” opened the program. Maestro Moody is music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony in North Carolina and music director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine.

The opportunity to experience the talents and perspectives of artists whose skills have been honed by appearances all over the world is enormously enriching to Spokane’s cultural life, and is one of the great gifts the Spokane Symphony has to give us.

“Rainbow Body” is an attempt at freshening our understanding of an ancient work of art by placing it in a modern context. The ancient work is the chant “Ave Maria, O auctrix vite” by the 12th-century visionary, theologian and composer Hildegard of Bingen.

Theofanidis has created a work for large orchestra that first creates a turbulent and uncertain environment into which he introduces a portion of the chant. The tension between the disciplined beauty of the chant and the orchestra’s interjections of violence and conflict, leading ultimately to the triumph of beauty, is the subject of the work.

The extraordinary power of Hildegard’s art lies in her handling of a similar tension between the severity of her medium (i.e., a single melodic line without harmony, counterpoint or rhythm), and the extremely passionate and expressive quality of her writing. Theofanidis weakens this power somewhat by setting the chant in a conventional manner. As the piece progresses, the theme appears garbed in harmonies and scoring more suited to a popular film score.

Conductor Moody underlined this Rachmanification of Hildegard’s severe beauty by asking the strings to play her theme in a highly romantic manner, deploying all the varieties of vibrato and slides at their command. He also instructed the audience to participate by shouting “hurrah” or “yay” at points in the conclusion of the work, in order, one supposes, to emphasize its triumphal nature. Many in the audience enjoyed this; some did not.

To conclude the first half of the concert, Moody and the orchestra were joined by Beilman in a performance of the Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 47 (1904-5) by Jean Sibelius. Beilman is a sovereign master of his instrument. Having long since conquered the thicket of technical demands presented by the Sibelius Concerto, he is free to concentrate on its interpretive challenges.

To these, he takes a controversial approach. Many of the great violinists who have preceded him interpret the solo part as portraying a conflict between passionate striving and stoic resignation, a conflict which underlies all of Sibelius’ major works. Instead, Beilman plays with ferocious intensity throughout, drawing the greatest possible effect from every phrase through the use of sudden changes in tempo, volume and tone color. This approach offers the reward of emotional involvement, but at the price of breaking Sibelius’ long emotional arc into brief, impactful bits. The result can be exhaustion, rather than exhilaration.

This approach pleased many in the audience, who rewarded the soloist with the extraordinary compliment of a standing ovation at the end of the first movement, an honor withheld from such legendary figures as Szeryng, Perlman and Heifetz when this writer saw them play.

In the rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor Op. 36 (1878) that concluded the evening, Moody, rather than exploring new avenues of interpretation, seemed content with allowing the orchestra to have its head in exploiting the work’s many beauties.

In particular, the brass section proved an inexhaustible source of warmth and power. Under the leadership of its principal, Kyle Wilbert, the horn section laid down a plush sonic carpet on which all of their colleagues could rest, while the trumpets and trombones consistently nailed the ominous fanfare motif that recurs throughout the work. In a pre-concert lecture, Moody described Principal Oboe Keith Thomas as a “superstar,” and his beguiling, richly inflected solo in the second movement showed why.

While a contribution of stronger character from the conductor would have been welcome, the glorious playing of the orchestra more than merited the ovation that followed the symphony’s thrilling conclusion.