Entertainment News 

Symphony closes season in style 
05/21/2003
By CLIFTON J. NOBLE JR. 
Music writer 

2003 The Republican Company. All rights reserved. Used with permission of The Republican http://www.repub.com

AMHERST - "A Concert For Our Time" brought the Pioneer Valley Symphony's 64th season to an auspicious conclusion Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center. 

The orchestra was joined by the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus, Terry Larsen, director, members of the Holyoke High School Choir, Mark Todd, director, and soloists Christina E. DeVaughn, soprano; Mary Westbrook-Geha, alto; Bill Hite, tenor; and Robert Honeysucker, baritone, all led by Maestro Paul Phillips in a far-ranging evening of music exploring the season's theme, "A Musical Mirror: Reflections of History." 

Beethoven's "Fidelio" Overture, Op. 72b, embodied the turn-of-the-19th century German view of heroism. Crisp fanfares and forthright, noble melodies elegantly executed bespoke an orchestra on its toes, anticipating a challenging and rewarding two hours of music-making. 

Reflecting the early days of World War II in the United States, Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" neatly complemented the muscular gestures and simple lines of the Beethoven, extending the 19th-century orchestra to include a commanding percussion battery, employed by Copland to profound propulsive and punctuating effect.

Baritone Robert Honeysucker delivered the Copland's narration in the clear, heightened conversational style that best suits the generally unassuming nature of the texts Copland chose from Lincoln's letters and speeches to sketch the man and statesman. Phillips and his players etched the frame of the "Portrait" with fearless intensity, confidently negotiating Copland's angular, gently austere score. 

Sir Michael Tippett's eclectic oratorio "A Child of Our Time" provided the evening's central focus, gathering the choral, orchestral, and solo forces in a resonant outcry against fascism. According to the PVS's thorough annotation, Tippett composed "A Child" over a period of three years beginning in 1939, responding to Nazi Germany's pogroms against Jews that exploded out of 17-year-old Herschel Grynspan's assassination of a German diplomat in Paris in November, 1938. 

Tippett fashioned his own libretto, interspersing philosophical statements, questions, and the story of the "Child" with African-American spirituals. The PVS Chorus merited tremendous praise for plunging heartily into Tippett's maelstrom of challenging contrapuntal writing - daunting melodic leaps of 9ths and 7ths all over a yawning vocal tessitura - and emerging triumphant. While it was difficult to distinguish many words from far back in the concrete cavern of the Fine Arts Center, the choristers' intention and declamation were fiercely passionate and exciting. 

The Holyoke students were pressed into service to strengthen the singing of the spirituals, and their youthful energy combined with the almost genetic familiarity of tunes and texts like "Steal Away," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See," "Go Down, Moses," "By and By," and "Deep River" created some of the evening's most magical musical moments. Bill Hite and Robert Honeysucker turned in stellar solo performances. Hite's recent entry into the University Music Department faculty is a boon to music lovers in the Pioneer Valley. The clarity and sweetness of his voice soared above potentially muddling orchestral and choral textures. His every pitch and word seared the ear with meaning and immediacy. 

Honeysucker - now singing, rather than speaking (as in the Copland) his narrative - brought a chilling, hooded inflection to his apocalyptic texts, ominously shading but never obscuring their import. 

Season after season, Phillips and his forces tackle ever more challenging and meaningful repertoire, tooling the identity of the orchestra as they refine their skills and reach out to their community with such interdisciplinary brainstorms as "The Art of the Violin," which culminated at the close of Saturday's concert with the distribution of several violins, gorgeously illuminated by local artists including Eric Carle, Barry Moser, Michael Kuch, and others, to fortunate raffle winners. 

The PVS will present a special performance June 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Greenfield High School auditorium in celebration of Greenfield's 250th anniversary. Next season marks Phillips' 10th with the PVS and they have an exciting musical menu planned, including symphonies by Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, and Dvorak, and culminating in Beethoven's Ninth next May. 

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