Beethoven caps eclectic evening

By John Farnworth for The Register-Guard.

Thursday night's Oregon Bach Festival concert at the Hult Center was an interesting exercise in contrasting musical styles.

With Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki on the Silva Hall podium, the program featured his own Agnus Dei from the Polish Requiem (written in 1981), his Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1992) and concluded with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F Major, the "Pastorale" (composed in 1808).

The 190-year gap between the Penderecki works and the Beethoven one provided a thought provoking lesson in how musical composition and style have evolved. (Some would hesitate to use the verb "progressed.")

The Agnus Dei, originally written for chorus and orchestra, was presented in its arrangement for strings alone. Approximately 30 stringed instruments, including no less than five double basses, meandered their way through eerie, windswept melodies, mainly in the harmonic mode and with some polyphonic progressions, but interspersed with wailing, crying dissonance, including one particularly anguished confrontation between the first and second violins. The eight-minute work concluded on a serene, contemplative plateau.

All sections of the string orchestra were superbly coordinated, the violins and cellos, in particular, turning in seamless performances.

The Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra featured the impressively gifted Scottish flautist Lorna McGhee. McGhee had given us a powerful account of her musical abilities in her obbligato parts in the J.S. Bach Mass for B Minor on Tuesday evening.

Her floating, silvery, sweet-toned voice in the Mass was given only infrequent opportunities to express itself in the flute concerto, however. The score is densely dissonant, with the soloist and various elements of the orchestra hurling thematic material at each other at dizzying speeds, particularly in the Allegro section. The soloist's score is formidably difficult, parts of it creating for me an image of a frightened child lost in a forest, terrified by strange, threatening sounds.

Yet McGhee executed her part with apparent ease and composure. The thunderous applause at the conclusion of the piece reflected the audience's amazement at and appreciation of her talented performance.

Well-deserved recognition also was accorded to clarinetist Michael Anderson and horn player Ed McManus. A measure of the complexity of the piece was that, although it is Penderecki's own composition, he paid very close attention to the score as he conducted. To some, it may have been a disturbing work.

After intermission, we were treated to a dazzling performance of Beethoven's famous "Pastorale" symphony, so different from the first part of the program and, indeed, so different from Beethoven's other eight symphonies. The composer, often at odds with his patrons, friends and housekeepers, admitted that he was most at peace with nature, and he loved walking in the forests and fields near Vienna. The Pastorale is the reflection of that aspect of his character.

In the first movement, "Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country," a simple four-measure theme dominates, conveying a sunny, harmonious and beatific aura to the musical experience. The strings shimmered, the horns were suitably rustic sounding, the rest of the wind instruments lilted, and the whole orchestra was splendidly coordinated.

In the second movement, "Scene by the brook," the violins, violas and cellos evoked a languid sense of gently murmuring water, while, later, flutes, oboes, bassoons and clarinets suggested sounds of a quail, nightingale and cuckoo. Charming stuff.

The third movement, "Merry gathering of country folk," painted a lovely country fair atmosphere, and featured sterling performances by the horns, oboes and flutes.

The segue into the fourth movement "Thunderstorm" was executed smoothly and with suspense, and when the storm hits with marvelous dissonance, Charles Dowd on kettledrums gave us his best, while the piercing piccolo (superbly played by Kristen Halay), trombones and rushing strings painted the elements of wind and rain most vividly. Wonderful!

The last movement, "Shepherd's song," was filled with serenity and sunshine, introduced by the solo clarinet, followed by the solo horn and developed by the massed strings, winds and brass into the shepherd's song, radiating quiet ecstasy and joy in nature. The music is uplifting and the performance of it was as well. The orchestra played seamlessly, as though it had rehearsed the piece a dozen times.

Altogether it was a joyful ending to an eclectic evening of music.