Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra concert closes the classics season with aplomb (Review)

06 May Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra concert closes the classics season with aplomb (Review)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The final concert in the “re-imagined” classics season took place Sunday afternoon in the Victory Theatre. More audience members were permitted (given Covid protocols) into the hall than earlier in the year, and a host of listeners got to hear the concert virtually.

Like all the re-imagined programs, this one presented an appealing variety of musical traditions and all within about an hour of music. Not only was the performance excellent it was also an excellent way to conclude a year of great challenges, musical and otherwise, and great successes. As conductor Roger Kalia noted, he will “never forget” his first year with the EPO.

Seven brass players plus two percussionists sat in a semi-circle in front of Kalia for the first composition, the Suite from Astor Piazzolla’s opera María de Buenos Aires. The music is vintage Piazzolla — sensuous tango dances, beguiling melodies and a fugue that kept the trombone players in particular very busy.

Tim Zifer and Kevin Wilson, though only two trumpeters, played a host of instruments from the trumpet family, each with a different tone and register; both took a well-deserved bow at the end of the composition.

“The Cantilena” (“lyrical song”) from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos followed, my favorite part of the entire performance. In the unusual setting, eight cellos accompany the very plaintive soprano vocal line, beautifully interpreted by Viginia Mims, who had the additional challenge of singing through a mask. Kalia explained that he added two high school students from the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra to complete the section, a great opportunity for the students. For the most part, the cellos play pizzicato throughout the Cantilena, but in a solo, the lead cellist repeats the lovely melody.

Graham Cullen — who also played a significant role in Teen Murti — echoed the human voice touchingly, and, later, Mims could be heard above the accompanying cellos and from behind her mask as she hummed the final, hypnotic portion of the composition.

The most recently composed work came next, “Teen Murti,” by young Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. Kalia had arranged for the presentation of a short video from the composer, who describes what she is trying to achieve in her work, a coming-together of classical western and classical Indian musical traditions. Though the instrumentation — a string orchestra — was entirely western, the sound most definitely was not: the frequent slides on the strings kept the pitch tantalizingly ambiguous throughout, and the meter seemed never to rest in one place for very long. Kalia seemed to easily overcome any challenges that the piece might create for the conductor.

Finally, a buoyant performance of Mozart’s final symphony, the one dubbed “Jupiter,” for the king of the Roman pantheon and, probably, for the grandest of Mozart’s symphonies. Though musically and historically removed from the contemporary works on the program, Jupiter played well in the Victory Theatre on Sunday, especially the melodic Andante cantabile movement and the ebullient concluding Molto allegro. The gathering of musical forces on stage, the largest so far this season, might presage the excitement of the coming season.

Kalia reminded listeners that few other orchestras have managed to present in-house concerts this past year. He also described the many pop-up and small-venue performances that orchestra members have provided for the Evansville public. Evansville is surely lucky to have such a talented, versatile conductor as well as a group of musicians willing to perform in a pandemic.