SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart and Elgar:   Mighten Yip, piano, Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Huw Edwards, cond., First United Methodist Church, Portland, Oregon, 16.11.2007 (BJ)

In addition to the widely reputed Oregon Symphony, under the impressive leadership of Carlos Kalmar, the city of Portland is fortunate to possess a second symphonic organization of far from negligible quality. This is the Portland Columbia Symphony, whose music director, the Welsh-born conductor Huw Edwards, presented a challenging program this month that juxtaposed Mozart’s E-flat-major Piano Concerto, K. 271, with Elgar’s monumental and marvelous First Symphony.

The Mozart itself is a work of imposing scale, and this performance was lent especial interest by the participation of an obviously gifted 14-year-old soloist. In addition to playing the violin – he and two younger sisters regularly perform as a trio, and he is a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic – and doing creditable science projects,  Mighten is clearly a pianist with a future. Already his poised demeanor on stage is matched by an undemonstrative but cultivated sense of what music is about, and his technique proved itself fully equal to the demands of one of Mozart’s most challenging and structurally innovative concertos.

Edwards and his orchestra supported their soloist well. Then, after intermission, they tackled the work that Hans Richter called “the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer,” and fashioned a performance that combined sensitivity in the music’s many lyrical passages with a virtuosity and power worthy of the grander moments. Edwards, who is also the conductor of the orchestra in Washington state’s capital city, Olympia, has molded his Portland players into an ensemble that doesn’t sound as if it should be ranked second to anyone, and I was not surprised to read in his program biography that he was recently made an honorary member of the Elgar Society in recognition of his advocacy of the composer’s work.

It was particularly encouraging to see a large number of children in the highly enthusiastic audience. Possibly many of them were there as fans of the young soloist, or as relatives of orchestra members, a large number of whom are music teachers in the area. But whatever the cause, the young people present were given the opportunity to hear an insufficiently recognized masterpiece of late-romanticism, and to hear it in an interpretation that did justice to its genius. Such a luxury must surely help in the creation of a public for symphonic music in the future.

Bernard Jacobson

 

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