SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Angela Hewitt, piano
Christopher Taylor, piano
Elizabeth Mann, flute
Renée Jolles, violin

Stravinsky: Concerto in D Major, “Basel Concerto” (1946)
Bach: Concerto for Keyboard and Orchestra in D Minor, BWV 1052 (1738)
Peter Maxwell Davies: Sea Orpheus (2009, World Premiere)
Dvořák: Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22 (1875)

  

In a program culled from four different centuries, Orpheus delivered one of its typically assured and satisfying concerts at Carnegie Hall, with a new piece by Peter Maxwell Davies as one of the centerpieces. Sea Orpheus, scored for piano, flute, violin and a small string contingent, is Maxwell Davies’s response to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, as well as a poem by George Mackay Brown. For the very first time, the composer set himself the task of writing a neo-classic work, and the result is in three movements, all based on a Gregorian chant, “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum,” which appears throughout in various guises. Sea Orpheus pivots back and forth from this stately chant to more sprightly passages that could be perceived as country dances in a gentle disguise. After a solemn entrance from the solo cello, the flute and violin enter with the strings, followed much later by the pianist, and Renée Jolles (violin), Elizabeth Mann (flute) and Christopher Taylor (piano) were the excellent soloists. From the audience reaction, Orpheus has a hit on its hands, the final commission of six in its New Brandenburg Project.

Angela Hewitt was the other star of the evening, in a long scarlet dress overlaid with black, and bright red satin shoes. Normally I don’t comment on soloists’ footwear, but in this case, her shoes made it easy to follow her pedal work. In Bach’s Concerto for Keyboard and Orchestra in D Minor, BWV 1052, she used a Fazioli piano which seemed to help her sound pop out slightly—pleasingly—over the orchestra. Ms. Hewitt is a highly regarded Bach interpreter (this writer has enjoyed some of her Hyperion recordings), and here, the highlight was the final movement, fast but not out of control, and crisply articulated.

The program opened with a fizzy account of Stravinsky’s Concerto in D Major, its balletic energy well-caught by the Orpheus crew. Things seemed slightly slow to ignite in the first movement, with the ensemble not quite managing all of the deceptively tricky syncopations. But the final two sections fell into place and they nailed the work’s buoyant mood with spot-on intonation. The evergreen Dvořák Serenade for Strings closed the program, in a suave, radiant reading that showed off the luster of the ensemble.

Bruce Hodges

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