Orquestra de São Paulo with Dame Evelyn Glennie, Percussion
Hey there, future Illini! This is Rob, the graduate assistant at Krannert Center’s Public Information Office and a doctoral student in the UI School of Music. As a self-proclaimed orchestra nerd, I eagerly await every professional symphonic performance at Krannert Center. The latest of these thrilling performances took place last Wednesday (October 14) as Brazil’s Orquestra de São Paulo performed with the famous percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. The resulting shockwaves (at least a 5 on the Richter scale) ingrained the performance as an experience that I’ll never forget. (In unrelated news, I’m now seeing a chiropractor.)
In a display of international unity, the American and Brazilian flags flanked the Foellinger Great Hall stage. The concert opened with the Brazilian national anthem. Next, the orchestra played “The Star Spangled Banner,” and the audience stood and sang along. The program featured two works by the Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993): Encantamento (Enchantment) and Três danças Brasileiras para orquestra (Three Brazilian Dances for Orchestra). Encantamento (1941) was initially written for violin and piano and later orchestrated for a full symphony. I thought that the piece had a strong jazz influence, and I could tell that the lyrical melodies in the strings would have been well suited for the original instrumentation.
However, I thought that the most interesting work performed was James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. The piece is a concerto for percussion and orchestra and featured Dame Evelyn Glennie as soloist. Glennie and MacMillan, both from Scotland, previously collaborated when Glennie premiered this piece in 1992. The solo part calls for many percussion instruments, which were laid out in four stations at the front of the stage. MacMillan, a Catholic, based the piece on the 15th-century Advent plainchant that shares the composition’s title.
Throughout the various sections of the work, Glennie marched from one station to the next, performing extraordinarily difficult passages on the many percussion instruments, including gongs, snare drums, congas, tom-toms, timbales, bass drum, woodblocks, cowbells, marimba, vibraphone, and tubular bells. The concerto is in one 25-minute-long movement and features frequently thick orchestral textures. Veni, Veni, Emmanuel’s massive scale was matched only by Glennie’s complete mastery of the numerous instruments that she played! The piece concluded with the strings striking small hand-chimes, creating a bright, magical soundscape. Over this, Glennie closed the piece with an enchanting tubular bell solo that ended with a cluster chord of bells that slowly died away.
Dame Evelyn Glennie, perhaps the most famous classical percussionist in the world, astounded the audience with her musicianship and virtuosity. Her performance alone was beyond impressive, but it seems almost unbelievable if you know that Glennie is deaf. She stands barefoot while playing so that she can feel the vibrations of the instruments.
The concert concluded with Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73. The Orquestra de São Paulo performed the magnificent work with exceptional energy and boldness! The strings played with both intense passion and meticulous precision, sustaining energy throughout the long phrases common in Brahms’ works. The cello section’s expressive playing at the opening of the second movement was magnificent. The orchestra took a rather speedy tempo in the finale, compared to other orchestras I’ve heard play this piece. My only criticism is about the persistent intonation issues in the brass. Throughout the symphony, the horns, trumpets, and trombones could have done better to listen to their colleagues and adjust pitch. The trombones’ sustained D major chord five bars before the symphony’s close was particularly disappointing.
But despite these few issues, the orchestra played admirably, and its vigorous rendition of Brahms’ symphony gave enjoyment to all. I was also impressed by Camargo Guarnieri’s works, and I’d like to learn more about him and his compositions. I’m admittedly underinformed on South American composers other than the famed Argentinean Astor Piazzolla. But above all, I adored MacMillan’s gargantuan percussion concerto, and I plan on adding Dame Evelyn Glennie and Veni, Veni, Emmanuel to my CD wish list. (Take note, Santa!)
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