Music

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Fresh, evocative voice expresses Cotton's vision

By: Holly Harris

Posted: 10/29/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

EVERY composer dreams of expressing a particular vision with a voice that is both fresh and evocative. American composer Jeffery Cotton has done just that, in his hauntingly beautiful string orchestral work, Suite from Pyramis & Thisbe (2002), the second show of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra's season.

Tuesday night's concert welcomed back popular guest maestro Scott Yoo, who last appeared with the orchestra in February. The Boston-based conductor/violinist also founded that city's Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, which performed the world premiere of Cotton's work in 2002. The 52-year-old composer (in attendance) served as the contemporary music ensemble's composer-in-residence from 1999 through 2003.

CONCERT REVIEW

Manitoba Chamber Orchestra

Tuesday, October 27

Westminster United Church

Attendance: 500

3 1/2 stars out of five

Originally conceived as an opera based on Ovid's tale of the young Babylonian lovers Pyramis and Thisbe (and prototypes for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), Cotton shelved the piece for 10 years then resurrected it as a ballet suite inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall when he was living in Germany during the early 1990s.

The dissonant, texturally rich work begins with angular, widely leaping lines accented by forceful jeté and snap pizzicatos in the lower strings. It drives forward with agitated intensity through muted, rhythmic ostinatos creating an otherworldly feel. Principal cellist Yuri Hooker's evocative solo spoke like a soliloquy while concertmaster Karl Stobbe easily navigated his extreme upper range over a pulsing accompaniment. The moody suite resolves triumphantly with a final major chord, as if heralding tumbled walls and new worlds begun.

Toronto-based composer Jeffrey Ryan's geometry-inspired Vesica Piscis refers to the almond-shaped intersection created by two overlapping, identical circles, and explores ideas of balance, symmetry, and ultimately, seeing eye-to-eye with another individual.

The episodic string work is characterized by repetitive sweeping gestures that evoke curvilinear shapes, and Ryan (also in attendance) does well to take a concept and translate it into music. However, the work still lacked a sense of cohesion and overall momentum. That may have been the whole point -- as a circle ends upon itself, but musically, the piece did not satisfy.

An unexpected treat was seeing Winnipeg's favourite oboist, Douglas Bairstow onstage as soloist for Mozart's Divertimento in D major (K 251). Recently retired from his longtime post as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's principal oboist, the well-loved musician has graciously agreed to perform with both orchestras until his successor can be found.

holly.harris@shaw.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 29, 2009 D4

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