UBC Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Girard
Music Journal III
Mar. 15th
“A Northern Suite” was the first symphonic composition of John Luther Adams, and it was composed for Gordon Wright and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra in 1979-80. Adams is a composer deeply connected with nation, and “A Northern Suite” is associated with the geography of the Northern area. The work is composed of five movement. The first movement “Blue Ice, Crystal Air” starts with violin solo and the third movement “Cloud Forest” started with glockenspiel solo, flute solo, and clarinet solo one by one. These two parts are like delicate bird voice, which followed by softly imitative texture. The second, third and fifth movements contain a dense web of overlapping rhythms across the orchestra. There are a lot of parts using varies imitation of the natural sounds, including bird song, ice flow, wind, etc. When the diverse layers coalesce, the result brings forth the composer’s image of these scenes in nature.
The “Clarinet Concerto” by Jean Françaix is my favorite piece in this concert. There are four movements. The structure of the first movement is a little bit similar to the first movement of Mozart’s “Piano Concerto in C Minor”. In the theme 2 of exposition in “Piano Concerto in C Minor”, at first is piano (echo by orchestra), then orchestra (echo by piano). While in the theme 2 of the first movement in “Clarinet Concerto”, there are clarinet (echo by orchestra), then Orchestra (echo by clarinet). In the third movement, sometimes clarinet shows in leaping melody followed by orchestra in smooth melody, then orchestra in leaping melody followed by clarinet melody. The followed smooth part is an accompaniment and always imitates the leaping part. The clarinet solo part and orchestra set up a great contrast, the following and imitation made the audience feel that the clarinet and orchestra seems chasing each other. Carlos Savall-Guardiola, the great clarinetist, showed the extreme technique in dynamic shaping, articulation, musicality, and speed. The overall nature of the piece, much like other work by Françaix, is decidedly jovial and at times mocking.
Claude Debussy composed “La Mer”, and his inspiration came from seascapes in art, such as Hokusai’s famous woodblock print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”. There are three movement. The first movement “From dawn to noon on the sea” is in B minor, at first the melody is delight and fast, the timpani added. The intensive string melody and hard timpani beating shows audiences the image of sun breaking out the clouds and the fantastic moved view of sunrise. The second movement “Play of the waves” is in C sharp minor, vividly draws a picture of wave patting the seashore. The melody is delight and lightsome, like waves chasing each other happily. The third movement “Dialogue of wind and the sea”, unlike what I was expected, the sound of timpani is not loud, instead is in low volume, and it represents the thunder far away. There are a lot of light, leaping and happy part, not heavy and down-mood at all. Only at the very end, the sound of timpani became louder and louder with intense gong, ended up with full orchestra.