Review: Inauguration Concert
Excellent musical celebration welcomes new IU president
ByPeter Jacobi
October 20, 2007
Being a celebration, Thursday’s Presidential Inauguration Concert at the IU Auditorium was predestined to contain some Beethoven. His music seems always called upon to mark an important occasion.
Well, he was drawn into this happy affair via the popular Symphony Number 5, performed with admirable precision and pep by the premier orchestral body of the Jacobs School of Music, the Philharmonic, the ensemble that had played the same masterwork at its fall season opener about five weeks earlier.
Listening to the Philharmonic was a celebration in itself, as was watching the lively, commanding David Effron conduct it, as was — later in the program — hearing soloist Andre Watts give his resourceful attention to Edvard Grieg’s A Minor Piano Concerto.
After all, the musicians on stage represent the best of the student body, and Effron and Watts, distinguished professionals both, have become faculty fixtures, meaning all present must have given cause to the new president, the honorable Michael McRobbie, to be happy taking charge of Indiana University.
Actually, the happy evening began with the happy Festival Overture of Shostakovich, a jubilant, brassy piece worthy of its name and played with all the necessary wit and gusto.
Then along came the Fifth, given a carefully considered, well formed reading. Effron, who prefers interpretations on the side of drama, tends to build performances around extremes of expression, and did so here.
Thus, the symphony’s subdued and subtle moments tended to become more so, and — as the orchestra was coaxed along toward and into builds and climaxes — these, in contrast, seemed to gain enhanced intensity, greater propulsion, and arresting thrust. That may not be to everyone’s taste, but the result did not lack for impact.
The remarkable Watts, with an incredible level of keyboard technique at his disposal, had no problem maneuvering through the thickets of chords and runs that Grieg placed into his Piano Concerto. The power in his arms and hands brought forth floods of sounds, sufficient even to compete with and override the orchestra. But what gave the Watts’ performance distinction was that other skill of his: touch. The pianist’s fingers can airbrush the keys, speeding along while drawing gorgeously limpid, lyrical tones. He demonstrated this ability generously, which, for this composition, is critically important because the music, for all its bravura passages, is a tender, melodious concoction meant to communicate the songlike qualities that Grieg knew best.
Listening to Watts, one could discern song. Effron and the Philharmonic matched him all the way. A standing ovation was their reward.
On an evening that marked the start of a new era, the years of McRobbie, quite appropriately it was music that served to remind him and all present of one excellence that really sets Indiana University apart, far more than and far more importantly than the nonacademic activities which usually capture the headlines, these days for worse rather than better. Here, at the Presidential Inauguration Concert, was unquestioned reason for Hoosier pride.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
