United States Colorado Music Pageant 2024 [1] – Varied: Olga Kern (piano), Kabin Thomas (narrator), Colorado Pageant Orchestra / Gemma New (director). Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder, Colorado, 19.7.2024. (DS)
Vivien Fung – ‘Prayer’
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No.2, Op.18
Grieg– Choices from Peer Gynt Suites 1&2
It was not simply one other busy journey day in July. I used to be ready, hour after hour, to see if my flight would ever raise off throughout the latest international Microsoft expertise crash in order that I may make it for the anticipated third weekend of concert events at Boulder’s Colorado Music Pageant. Many flights, together with these of people hoping to listen to Olga Kern’s efficiency of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2, have been canceled with no imminent probability of rebooking. Sadly, they’d miss out on a incredible live performance.
However one thing mysterious (and completely unbiased of any fashionable expertise) should have intervened on my behalf. As a result of I made it – by operating down the jetway, hailing a Lyft and rushing alongside the open roads of Colorado to drag up moments earlier than the efficiency started at Boulder’s stunning Chautauqua Auditorium.
Whereas a lot composition today incorporates computer systems, software program, electronics and, generally, AI, Vivien Fung’s ‘Prayer’ is an attention-grabbing testomony to a time after we have been relieved to have new expertise round us. She wrote the work throughout the isolation of COVID-19 to convey bodily separated musicians throughout Canada along with recorded elements. It was intriguing to listen to this ‘pandemic work’ in a live performance corridor now, with a full orchestra below one baton.
It transitions fantastically to the stage – this time with the unwavering experience of conductor Gemma New. Based mostly on a prayer by Hildegard von Bingen, Fung’s brief work is a balm for the soul. ‘Prayer’ opened with the grounding sound of a number of basses as different sections slowly joined in, till a sonorous, multi-textured mix wafted into the huge picket auditorium. I couldn’t assist however envision Fung writing the piece in isolation whereas eager to seize a way of the majestic profundity of spirit. She succeeded, skillfully and with gorgeous aesthetics – which might play as nicely on Zoom as on a mountain. On the shut, the piece returns to a spot of quiet introspection after which ends with a poignant, single ring from the percussion part. Fung’s composition captured the viewers’s consideration and proved that expertise has not made it inconceivable to concentrate on one expertise at a time.
With expertise on the thoughts, I watched the Steinway lid open for Olga Kern’s efficiency of Rachmaninoff. Although we could take their existence without any consideration, devices are additionally technological improvements of their time. Like some other invention, they will work nicely or break down and, like software program, they work greatest with expert, artistic customers. Kern is one such technological grasp of the piano. Simply as a savvy Wall Avenue analyst would possibly elegantly manipulate an Excel spreadsheet, Kern tears into the piano to display what it actually has to supply. And, in fact, this can be a lot extra scintillating than a spreadsheet!
Kern carried out with countless power, powering by means of the Rachmaninoff concerto with a magnetic pleasure. From my seat within the second row, I noticed the instrument shake and bounce on the stage, exhibiting its robust Steinway spine. However this was not simply piano showmanship – it was a very particular person strategy to a bit that audiences love and would possibly anticipate to listen to in a regular interpretation. Kern had different plans.
She lit a contemporary fireplace below this behemoth work. At instances her phrasing was jazzy, and generally she had a Chopinesque fashion. Glimmers of early Brahms flowed from her fingers. The concerto’s emotional content material was putty in Kern’s palms: she accentuated anxious and nervous undertones with a fingering method that emphasised her interpretation, and she or he turned passages into tender expressive moments with out falling into the mainstream pit of nostalgic shmaltz. And each climax – of which Rachmaninoff is the grasp – she approached with an intriguing selection. For some, she used a sweeping gesture, and for others she would bounce on with shock or creep up on them with deliberate hesitancy. Kern made me essentially interested by and deeply drawn to this concerto once more – not a straightforward feat.
Although in each method a soloist with a assured presence, Kern can also be an ensemble participant and absolutely engaged with the orchestra. Her rapport with conductor New (who stepped in for Rune Bergmann who had been scheduled) was removed from hidden – they paired nicely and led the competition orchestra collectively. Their working relationship was evident and elevated the expertise. Within the second motion, there was a testomony to Kern’s reference to the orchestra when she and the principal oboe performed the opening of alternating voices as if subsequent to one another in an intimate area reasonably than at a distance throughout the stage. It was heavenly.
The very best summer time festivals are sometimes locations of camaraderie the place musicians separated by their seasonal jobs return to outdated mates in splendid settings like Boulder. Kern comes yearly to the Colorado Music Pageant and, after shouts of bravo from the viewers, she beamed and introduced her encore decisions. One had the sensation that she was excited to share an intimate secret with us, as if she have been enjoying a favourite piece alone at midnight. She gave a rendition of Prokofiev’s Etude No.4 in C minor that entwined the foolish, severe and macabre magnificently. Kern completed with an viewers favourite, Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, at such a rollicking pace that she out-paced any bee that may have tried to maintain up.
The night ended with alternatives from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites. Kabin Thomas of CPR Classical Radio joined in to inform Peer Gynt’s story between every motion, and he had an actual knack for freshening up an outdated story. He framed Peer Gynt as ‘the Homer Simpson of Norway’, which amused the viewers, and he demonstrated listening expressions as he sat in entrance of the orchestra – a boon for many who need to strategy classical music. Thomas modeled enter the area of listening by means of demonstration.
The orchestra carried out with what struck me as a classic radio fashion – vivid, completely balanced tone and dynamics, tight phrasing – all with the purpose of sending a transparent message to audiences of all types. Below New, who held the orchestra along with ease, they performed particularly partaking, sultry variations of ‘Anitra’s Dance’ and ‘Solveig’s Track’. Everybody may really feel how every musician cherished being a part of the competition’s music-making.
By the tip of the night, ideas of a four-hour flight delay have been lengthy gone. Know-how has at all times been marching ahead, with its advantages and its detriments. Alongside the best way, music has been a part of the journey of human creation. As soon as once more, the music didn’t let anybody down, no matter any international software program crashes, and it introduced distinctive artists and an impressed viewers collectively.
Daniele Sahr
