An intoxicating timelessness: Pianist Artina McCain with Orchestra Nova Northwest

Orchestra Nova Northwest celebrated its new identify with strong performances of music by African-American composers at Reynolds Excessive College (September 14). Carried out by Music Director Steven Byess (now in his tenth season with the orchestra), the live performance supplied gems by George Walker, Florence Value, and Fred Onovwerosuoke, together with two nuggets that have been delivered with elan by pianist Artina McCain.

However dang it! A paltry viewers on a wet night was the one factor that marred an distinctive program. 

The orchestra that was beforehand often known as the Portland Columbia Symphony up to date its identify to Orchestra Nova Northwest with the intention to replicate its mission to current concert events within the better Portland metropolitan space with an emphasis on the range of musical expertise. With that renewed imaginative and prescient in thoughts, ONN’s inaugural live performance embraced its creative endeavor wholeheartedly, starting with Onovwerosuoke’s Dance Tribute for Orchestra and Piano Obbligato. Born in Ghana to Nigerian dad and mom, Onovwerosuoke is an award-winning American composer who’s equally at house in African and Western musical kinds. He has impressively visited greater than thirty African nations to analysis Africa’s wealthy musical traditions.

Usually, the primary quantity in an orchestra live performance is a brief, uplifting orchestra-only piece that tunes up concertgoers’ ears. Onovwerosuoke’s piece did precisely that within the type of a mini-piano concerto. With McCain on the keyboard, the Dance Tribute for Orchestra and Piano Obbligato leapt ahead with a handy guide a rough, catchy melodic phrases that had an African underlayment. They have been spiced up every now and then by spirited riffs from the flute. 4 percussionists danced forwards and backwards between a battery of devices, and the piece concluded with a sense of rhythmic pleasure. 

George Walker’s Lyric for Strings has been getting increasingly performances by orchestras all over the world, a long-overdue recognition of Walker’s artistry. He wrote the piece when he was 24 years previous and finding out on the Curtis Institute of Music. Shortly earlier than he died in 2018, he advised interviewers “I by no means performed a string instrument, however one way or the other strings have all the time fascinated me.” Wow!

Below the baton of Byess, the NOO introduced out the terrific combination of lament, poignancy, and optimism that imbues the Lyric for Strings with an intoxicating timelessness. The decrease strings added simply the correct amount of gravitas in order that the music got here throughout prayerfully, however not piously. It sounded good. 

The renaissance of curiosity within the music of Value has been set in movement by the rediscovery in 2009 of a lot of her items that have been thought of misplaced. It was a miracle {that a} trove of her scores have been present in a run-down, deserted home in St. Anne, Illinois – about 70 miles south of Chicago – that Value had used in the course of the summer season. As an alternative of being tossed within the dumpster, the music was verified by musicians and musicologists and now could be heard on live performance phases and recordings as soon as once more.

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McCain returned to heart stage for a efficiency of Florence Value’s Piano Concerto in D Minor in One Motion (which truly has three actions, however they’re performed with out pause). The propulsive, rolling melodic line of the “Andantino” obtained loads of verve from McCain. The stunning oboe and piano duet highlighted the “Adagio cantabile,” and the springy juba dance within the “Allegretto” introduced the piece to an excellent finale. 

After intermission, Value’s Symphony No. 1 in E Minor obtained a advantageous efficiency by the orchestra. Byess urged glorious taking part in from the woodwinds plus a advantageous viola solo within the first motion. A stately alternate of passages between the brass and woodwinds enhanced the second motion, and the clarinet gave a motoric sense of fixed movement. The syncopated juba-inflected rhythms of the third motion have been infectious – solely to be topped off by a barely sooner tempo within the fourth, which led to a jubilant finale. 

Returning to the sparse attendance, I do know that the orchestra has labored onerous to attract an viewers within the east-county space with concert events in Gresham and Troutdale, however I’m questioning what it might take to generate a sturdy turnout. Hmm…