I had the pleasure of attending the UBC Symphony Orchestra, directed by Jonathan Girard. The night featured the composers Adams, Françaix, and Debussy, and the three pieces were flawlessly performed. It was a night that featured pieces of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The first piece was entitled “A Northern Suite” by John Luther Adams. It had interesting titles for the names of its movements – all related to a Northern climate. I would describe it as intense, deep, and dark. It contained recognizable points of imitation. An interesting feature, not seen too often as far as I have observed, is that the violins were not always in sync with their bowing. This seemed to catch the feature of nature that is not always exactly what you would expect.
The second piece was a “Clarinet Cocerto” by Jean Francaix. The concerto takes many twist and turns that sure must be difficult for the soloist to play. The first movement is fast and is in sonata form and has a cadenza right in the center of the recapitulation. It was the longest of the entire concerto, having an exposition, development, and a recapitulation. Interestingly, the clarinet concerto does not start with a clarinet, but rather a flute. The first theme of this movement was very lively. The second theme in contrast was much calmer. The second movement is compound ternary. The third movement is a slower one, seeming to be a sort of theme and variations. The last movement is also fast and is in rondo form and contains two cadenzas. The soloist Carlos Savall-Guardiola performed brilliantly, breezing through what seemed like many difficult passages.
The last piece of the night was “La Mer” by Claude Debussy. The first movement translates to “From dawn to noon on the sea”. It begins very gently with the harp at a slow pace. It then builds and picks up a little speed. It seemed the sea was quite calm that morning. The picture I got was that the waves were moderate during the start of the day. The piece features different sections of the orchestra and even short solos. Throughout the day, the waves became more active. The second movement was called “Play of the waves”. As the name would suggest, it was quite playful, beginning with the instruments playing running passages. It was not tempestuous, but rather light. The third movement was called “Dialogue of the wind and the sea” and right away was more intense than the previous movements. It sounded as though the wind and sea were competing and interacting.
Overall, it was interesting to hear more recent pieces, as compared to the many baroque and classical pieces I have listened to. All the performances were superb and gave me an insight into what more modern music is like. I would say that 19th and 20th century music is more outside the box than music of previous musical periods which tended to follow rules more closely. I would definitely recommend others to listen to more modern music and to check out the UBC Symphony Orchestra.