I reserved my ticket the moment I saw La Mer by Claude Debussy was in the program. It was a great piece I have heard many times online, and I definitely wouldn’t miss the chance to hear it live.
The first piece was called A Northern Suite, and it was John Luther Adams’ first symphonic composition. J.L. Adam is also an environmentalist, and this piece includes five movements where each movement depicts a scene in the world. The first movement, Blue Ice, Crystal Air, started with a short violin solo which imitated the sound of the bird as if the carefree bird is flying over the clean sky. The suite, in general, was very light, it contained lots of imitation of the natural scenes and sound such as birds singing, ocean waves, thunders and breezes. According to the program, the second, third and fifth movement ‘contains a dense web of overlapping rhythms across the orchestra’. I did hear different layers of sound, however, I found myself enjoy more melodic classical music more.
The second piece was a very lively clarinet concerto by Jean Françaix. I really like the composer’s description mentioned in the program notes, ‘a kind of acrobatics display for the ear, complete with loops, wing-turns, and nosedives which are fairly terrifying for the soloist, who needs to have a good stomach and several thousand flying hours under their belt’. The soloist Carlos Savall-Guardiola clearly did a great job – I never saw someone can play the clarinet so well in such difficult piece, as there were many different jumps, and it was also fast! The whole concerto had four movements, and I particularly like the third movement Andantino the best, the reason being it was comparably slower than other movements where I get to take a breath and sit back enjoying instead of worrying about the soloist making any mistakes as it was so fast in other movements!
After the intermission, we heard the last piece by Claude Debussy, La Mer. In the first movement, De l’cube à midi sur la mer (From dawn to noon on the sea), I heard the trumpet and English horn playing where it felt like the sun was gradual surfaces from the sea. In the latter part, it kinda gets louder and louder in the development section and suddenly, a majestic brass brought to the end of the first movement.
The second movement, Jeux de vagues (play of the waves), was completely different from the first movement I would say. It depicted a different scene by using lots of jumps between strings and winds. I like the harp played in between, as if the waves go up and down and finally go back to calm. The final movement, Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of the wind and the sea), the disturbed sea came back again and led to a conversation of wind and the sea.
I was amazed again by UBC Symphony Orchestra, the music is beautiful already itself, and the live performance always gives me another experience as if we all live near the sea in that 30 minutes.