Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Fairfax Symphony Orchestra

Violinist/composer Lakshminarayan Subramaniam may not be a household name in these parts, but in India he is revered as a supreme musician. Along with such familiar artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma and Jean-Pierre Rampal, he has long championed the fusion of music of different cultures. On Saturday, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra opened its new season at the George Mason Center for the Arts with a program that featured Subramaniam, his small band of musicians and his music.

The evening opened with 45 minutes of intricate South Indian music, to accustom the ear to Subramaniam's Carnatic idiom. Subramaniam and his son, also a violinist, played electrified violins, and a quartet of splendid percussionists played the mridangam, a double-sided drum; the kanjira, a small frame drum; the ghatam, which is, in fact, a large clay pot; and a morsing, a form of jew's harp -- all seated at the front of the stage on an oriental rug.

The rest of the program brought together the Indian ensemble, the full Fairfax Symphony and the Warrenton Chorale for three big works (one, "Freedom Symphony," a world premiere). Composed by Subramaniam in a concerto-like idiom, the music preserved traditional Carnatic melodic and architectural structures and improvisational feel but incorporated more Western harmonic patterns.

Subramaniam, amazingly virtuosic, lived up to his reputation. The orchestra, under longtime Music Director William Hudson (and, for one work, under newly appointed Associate Conductor Glenn S. Quader) sounded robust and secure. The chorale, way back on the stage, was largely inaudible.

-- Joan Reinthaler

Saturday night's concert by the National Philharmonic was billed as a "Symphonic Blockbuster," but a good crowd turned up at the Music Center at Strathmore anyway, hoping for the best. To little avail, alas. The program -- titled "National Voices" -- was one of those unimaginative, play-it-safe affairs, with not one, not two, but three sagging old warhorses trotted out.

First up was Sibelius's "Finlandia" from 1900, painted in broad strokes by conductor Piotr Gajewski with much heroic crashing, little subtlety and a pale sort of grandeur. Smetana's much-loved "The Moldau" got a similar treatment.

Then there was Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" from 1942. It's a war-effort piece in which a speaker reads excerpts from Lincoln while the orchestra plays Copland's soaring Americana. Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett brought a low-key approach to the speaker's role, and the most interesting aspect was the irony of Lincoln's words: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves."

Maybe it's just that "nationalist music" has become an outdated idea; the most exciting music these days is written by composers (Tan Dun, for instance) who leap among musical cultures with imagination, wit and cheerful disregard for national borders. At any rate, it was the only non-nationalistic piece on the program, Sibelius's Violin Concerto, that saved the show. And much of the credit goes to the brilliant 22-year-old violinist Sandy Cameron, who played this rhapsodic work with passion and engaging, thoughtful intelligence.

-- Stephen Brookes