Symphony serves up a modern banquet

Friday’s night’s Symphony on the Edge at the Big Easy proved two things. First, symphony orchestras can play in nightclubs. Second, programs of all modern music can make a hit with audiences.

It was like a breath of fresh air to hear a concert in which nearly every work was composed during my lifetime and performed with such zest by an ensemble that looked and sounded young and vital, led by a young conductor.

Friday’s ensemble effectively mixed full orchestra pieces with works for smaller combinations of instruments.

Conductor Morihiko Nakahara provided gently witty verbal introductions and led the orchestra with confidence and precision.

Nakahara’s program featured short works of composers from the U.S., Austria, Argentina, Germany and Japan – a banquet of music composed from the mid-1920s to the late 1990s.

The program explored music influenced by the movies and ballet, music that bore the imprint of exotic cultures, and concert music that explored the elements of popular styles and jazz.

Nakahara opened with “Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance” from the ballet “The Cave of the Heart” (now called simply “Medea”) Barber wrote for Martha Graham. The music seethes and builds to a violent climax. The orchestra seemed uneasy at first, still getting used to its surroundings, but the effect was powerful.

Several of Friday’s works served to remind the audience how influential the movies have been. Even Arnold Schoenberg wasn’t immune. His “Accompaniment for a Cinematographic Scene” was evocative of the German Expressionist horror movies of the 1920s.

And John Adams’ “Roadrunner” lived up to the cartoonish frenzy of its title. William Harvey played the difficult violin solo – a mixture of Paganini and bluegrass – with great flair.

Toru Takemitsu is best known for music that evokes quiet Nature. But Nakahara played music from Takemitsu’s film scores that were very different.

One was as dreamily sentimental as anything in a romantic Hollywood movie of the 1950s. And the second was a waltz “composed by someone who didn’t waltz,” as the composer himself put it. Takemitsu’s movie music can be as sentimental or funny as Schoenberg’s is scary.

The music of exotic cultures was present Friday as well. The work on this concert that made the deepest impression on me was the tribute Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov composed in memory of tango composer Astor Piazzola.

In “Last Round,” Golijov managed to integrate tango rhythms and melodic turns in an accelerating dance that turns into a gentle, sighing lamentation. It was beautifully performed by two string orchestras that faced each other across the stage.

Another vital element running though concert music of the 20th century was equally evident Friday: jazz. John Mackey’s “Damn” is a dance score for four roiling percussion parts with a solo for amplified clarinet woven out of short jazzy melodic cells. Chip Phillips was the stylish clarinet soloist.

The concert ended with H.K. Gruber’s “Radio City,” a fond recollection of the sounds of swing that the composer heard on the radio during the American occupation of Germany after the First World War.

Symphony on the Edge presented the kind of program that allows symphony audiences to connect with music of our time.

Friday’s large audience at the Big Easy seemed delighted with the view of music near their own time. Such concerts need to be a bigger part of the symphony’s season.