SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Schwarz, Jones, Mahler, and Strauss: Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Julian Schwarz, cello; Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano; Northwest Boychoir; Ladies of Vocalpoint! Seattle; Seattle Girls’ Choir; Northwest Girlchoir Amore; Seattle Symphony; Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 11.9.2010 (BJ)

This opening night, saluting the start of Gerard Schwarz’s 26th and last season as music director of the Seattle Symphony, was very much a family occasion. It would be hard to devise a program better suited to showcasing his multiple talents.

There was that Schwarz signature, the world premiere of an American work–in this instance, the Cello Concerto by his hand-picked composer in residence, Samuel Jones. There was the first performance of one of Schwarz’s own works, The Human Spirit, in a new version. There was the music director’s assemblage of a suite from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. You could say that Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen was the odd work out, but this too came as reaffirmation of the conductor’s dedication to performing Mahler’s music. And one of Schwarz’s most impressive creations was on show too: the soloist in the concerto was his son Julian, already, in his teens, one of the finest cellists now before the public.

The piece he premiered takes its place in the impressive series of concertos that Jones has created for the orchestra and its players in recent seasons. Orchestrated and laid out on a smaller scale than the preceding works for tuba, horn, and trombone, the Cello Concerto is certainly not less intense or compelling in expressive character. Playing for about 19 minutes, it is scored for a Mozart-sized orchestra with the addition of a few percussion instruments.

These relatively modest forces placed the solo part firmly in the foreground. But in any case the solo writing, by turns brilliantly rapid and passionately lyrical, makes an ideal vehicle for Julian Schwarz’s unusually rich, powerful, and well-focused tone. After a first hearing, I am not sure the work is as attractive in melodic terms as its often agreeably tuneful predecessors. Still, the combined effect of the soloist’s eloquent playing and the orchestra’s finely shaped contribution was impressive enough to spark an instant standing ovation of a warmth unusual for the reception of any new piece.

The conductor’s own new offering was a re-worked version of the setting he made last year of a text that appears on the north face of Benaroya Hall. This is Aaron Copland’s declaration that “So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.” Schwarz scored the piece originally for boys’ chorus with string quintet, horn, and vibraphone. The version now premiered calls for larger choral forces and full orchestra. Ten minutes or so in duration, and redolent of the gentle humanism central to much of the music Schwarz loves to conduct, it was sung with evident dedication by the various choral forces assembled for the occasion.

Denyce Graves is a gifted singer who has given many wonderful performances. But in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen the mezzo seemed to me less than well attuned to Mahler’s characteristic blend of emotional intensity with folk-inspired lightness of texture and phrasing. The voice is gorgeous, but it was ladled over the music with rather too heavy a hand. It was left to the suite Schwarz has drawn from Der Rosenkavalier, which lays more emphasis on the exuberant than on the intimate aspects of Strauss’ score, to bring the evening to a suitably personal and festive close.

Bernard Jacobson

This review appeared also in the Seattle Times.