Texas Classical Review

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi offered a stirring program Thursday night featuring music of George Gershwin and Morton Gould as well as a world premiere by Angélica Negrón.  Although widely varied, the selections on the program were linked in their use of vernacular music and, in the case of Gould and Negrón, Latin-American vernacular styles.

Most of the audience in the Meyerson Center had likely come to see pianist Inon Barnatan performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and he did not disappoint.

Barnatan played with a clear, singing tone that served him well. His solo episodes were more introspective, although the speed and fluidity of his playing remained stunning, and when accompanied by the orchestra, he effortlessly matched the rhythmic verve of the larger group.  

That verve came principally from Luisi, whose energy propelled the orchestra forward in the tutti passages.  Whether accentuating the march-like character of the rhapsody’s “train” melody or reveling in the sense of rhythmic freedom during the lyrical interludes, Luisi and the DSO embodied the brash spirit of the 1920s. Paul Hafley flawlessly provided the opening clarinet slide, imbuing it with a healthy jazzy swagger. Stuart Stephenson and Barry Hearn matched Hafley on trumpet and trombone through their use of mutes and slide gesture

The closing chords of Rhapsody in Blue had the audience on their feet instantly, prompting Barnatan to return with Gershwin’s variations on “I Got Rhythm” for a dazzling encore.

Morton Gould’s Latin American Symphonette followed, expanding on the lively, accessible character of Gershwin’s familiar classic.  Gould used Latin American idioms both for character and structure, basing each of the Symphonette’s four movements on a distinct dance style.  The opening “Rhumba” bears a close resemblance to Rhapsody in Blue, although its initial brass fanfare and successive episodic themes also recall Aaron Copland’s El Salón Mexico. Luisi reined in the orchestra’s brashness for “Tango,” coaxing a quiet voluptuousness out of the movement’s mysterious string melody. 

The jaunty “Guaracha” featured thematic fragments and a soaring melody, propelled by the motoric accompaniment of Marci Gurnow’s bass clarinet and Ted Solurie’s bassoon.  “Conga” opened with a muscular percussion groove reminiscent of the mambo from West Side Story before locking into its insistent rhythm as Luisi steadily guided the DSO through the movement’s crescendo to its own inexorable conclusion.

This energetic second half of the program came in stark contrast to the first half, in which Latin American idioms were only one part of a larger statement.  A former composer-in-residence with the DSO, Angélica Negrón’s for everything you keep losing called for four vocal soloists. 

Negrón described the piece as a “meditative cycle,” that “explores sonic loss and the erasure of sonic diversity, tied to habitat destruction, species extinction and climate change.”  The seven movements making up the piece are organized around texts from the requiem mass augmented by quotations from contemporary poets that act as glosses on those texts.  

The orchestra provided varied soundscapes including sustained consonant sonorities, isolated gestures imitating animal sounds, and short rhythmic ostinato, all providing a foundation for the chorus and the soloists. 

Soprano Lauren Snouffer and tenor Paul Appleby sang a reflective duet during the second movement, their rich voices ringing out in sustained tones over bomba rhythms from mallet percussion. Mezzo-soprano Kimberly Gratland James and countertenor Key’mon Murrah alternately intoned a more fatalistic idea in the fourth movement, their resonant voices softly backed by the Dallas Symphony Chorus. 

Snouffer returned as the lone soloist in the fifth movement, her message of hope over the choir’s crescendo suddenly breaking into spoken prose, an effect replicated in the sixth movement by both Appleby and Gratland James, whose verbal recitation continued after all the other instruments and voices had faded into silence.  All four soloists returned for the final movement, collectively voicing the movement’s statement of resolution in sustained notes that were embraced by the accompanying full, rich sonorities of the orchestra and chorus.

The pentatonic, sonorous harmonies and understated rhythms of each movement produced a serene effect consistent with the meditative quality Negrón said she wished to evoke. Yet, captivating as it is, the prevailing serenity doesn’t convey the grief or anguish implied by the texts.  

The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.  dallassymphony.org