Hailstork's Symphony No. 3
Symphony premiere, cellist hit high note
Music review of the Grand Rapids Symphony’s performance on Friday, published in The Grand Rapids Press Nov. 21, 2003
By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk,
Arts and Entertainment Writer for the Grand Rapids Press
Beethoven swung both ways. Glance at his odd symphonies, and you have the heroic “Eroica” No. 3, the mighty Symphony No. 5 and the noble “Choral” Symphony No. 9.
In between, the even-numbered symphonies all are more pastoral.
The plan that worked for Beethoven proved no less successful for Adolphus Hailstork on Friday evening in DeVos Performance Hall.
The Classical Series concert also featured an amazing performance by cello soloist Ralph Kirshbaum, who earned the evening’s first standing ovation.
Last year, the Grand Rapids Symphony played Hailstork’s powerful Symphony No. 2, inspired in part by a visit the black composer made to Ghana, where he toured 19th-century dungeons that once held Africans bound for slavery in the New World.
On Friday, music director David Lockington and the orchestra gave the premiere performance of Hailstork’s lively Symphony No. 3, a cheery, often tuneful piece that ended in a standing ovation for performers and composers alike.
Described by the composer as a “folk symphony,” it is, in a sense, a never-ending tussle between light and dark or between happy and sad. One might say it’s a reminder life has its ups and downs, but mostly its ups.
Lockington and the orchestra gave a fine performance of the colorfully orchestrated piece with plenty of solos in woodwinds and brass and the full gamut of mallet percussion from xylophone to marimba.
Opening with the most improbable melody, an unusually asymmetrical series of note and rhythms, Hailstork concocted a catchy phrase that filled out the standard structure for the opening movement.
The beautiful second movement, a long chorale for strings, provided definitively that contemporary composers are as capable of lovely lyricism as the old masters.
Unlike standard symphonies, the finale brings back the hustle and bustle of the first movement tying it together in spirited finale.
Throughout the entire work, the rhythms are extraordinary and extraordinarily complex. The Grand Rapids Symphony deftly handled a smartly orchestrated, but nonetheless difficult, score to rehearse and perform in one week’s time.
Hailstork’s Third Symphony is coming soon to a compact disc near you. On Sunday, the Grand Rapids Symphony will be back in an empty DeVos Hall to record the symphony, a work commissioned by the orchestra and dedicated to Lockington and the organization.
Together with Hailstork’s Second Symphony, recorded last fall, the finished compact disc will be issued in fall 2004.
You may not have heard of Kirshbaum before, but cello lovers speak of the Texas-born London resident in the same sentences as they do Janos Starker, Yo Yo Ma and Mstislave Rostropovich among others.
Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor is unusual in that its three movements are played without pause and the melodic material carries through the entire work.
It’s also unique in that the orchestra does little more than accompany the soloist, who has a tremendous burden of carrying the performance on his shoulders.
Kirshbaum, fortunately has the skills to get the job done. He also has an exceptional cello, a 1729 Domenico Montagnana instrument, that’s terrific as a solo instrument with a penetrating and notably balanced tone.
Of course, the cello is nothing without the player, and Kirshbaum practically makes the cello sing. You almost sense the instrument drawing breath as he draws bow.
His opening section was romantically lush though impeccably clean. The slow middle was achingly beautiful.
The third movement cadenza seemed to depict a bipolar cellist at war with himself, and with Kirshbaum’s playing, you easily found yourself rooting for both sides to win.
The program opened heroically with Wagner’s Overture to “The Flying Dutchman.”
While there were moments that suggested this was the piece left under-rehearsed while preparing for the Hailstork, the performance had its hair-raising moments.
Lockington’s approach, firm but not forceful, was an evocative swirl of wind and wave from the winds and strings.