Women’s creativity in music—the theme of the new Princeton Symphony Orchestra season—knows no limits to judge by the concert series’ opener, “Graceful Pairings,” Sept. 27, 2015, in Alexander Hall on the Princeton University campus.
Rossen Milanov, music director, led what many call New Jersey’s finest symphonic ensemble in a remarkable new work by composer Anna Clyne, featuring a stand-out solo performance by the incredible Jennifer Koh, violinist. The Seamstress is basically a two-movement concerto for violin and what I call a “loaded” orchestra: four horns, harp, contrabassoon, and all the regulars.
I usually shy away from programmatic interpretations of music (“It sounds like a train!” and other banal comments come to mind), but this profound work, rich in modulations, textures, rhythmic variety, reminded me of nothing so much as Debussy’s La Mer, impressions of the sea.
This should not surprise, since the first three letters of Clyne’s masterful work are S-E-A. Yes, we can wax programmatic a bit, since the rhythms and patterns of a woman’s needlework wizardry recall the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the rhythm of waves that Matthew Arnold said “Begin, and cease, and then again begin/With tremulous cadence slow.”
Clyne (born in 1980) explains that she wanted to retain an organic sound, but her music says all this with immediacy and eloquence. There is the labor of the seamstress, there is the rhythm, rush, and roar of the sea, and there is also something else, something timeless, organic, but not to be named.
Structurally, the first section of this work sounded to me like a chaconne, a musical form that intersperses variations with a return to the main thematic material. Koh begins the work solo, with a riveting line of pure sonority. Violins sound so wonderful in Richardson Auditorium; you can almost smell the rosin and the fruity oils of the wood. The orchestra then steps in and both instruments (orchestra and solo violin) blend their distinctive sounds through a cascade of variations.
Clyne’s symphonic writing is truly gripping; instead of mild modulations, entire sections of the orchestra seem to drop, like tectonic plates falling in sheets during an earthquake. It is startling, almost like a blow to the chest, but the music rises, and there are healing glissandos that always land on precisely the right note.
Koh’s physical presence also contributed to the beauty of a work which is sometimes serene, other times agitated and uneasy. She wore a pale champagne tinted gown, strapless to reveal muscular shoulders. Her black hair, short, was frequently tossed a la Beatles.
Milanov cut a commanding, but elegant figure at the podium, an image of dignity and grace, with reserved motions and a controlled approach quite different from his stance in the second work on the program, Rachmaninoff’s sumptuous Second Symphony. What a luxurious indulgence it is for audiences to surrender to the power and almost overwhelming beauty of its melodies and sonorities. In this work, Milanov melted into sweeping gestures, embracing and letting go, as though releasing the music from his heart into the pit. A pit is a kind of heart, isn’t it. It’s a long work, almost an hour, but a lively one, with patches of frenzy to offset the lyricism, some splendid percussion work providing the skeleton on which all the lushness drapes.
The last hushed whispers of the end of the third movement: have they ever been captured so eloquently? I thought of the sobs ending the funeral movement of Beethoven’s Eroica, but these final notes were more austere and visceral, a series of fading heart beats culminating in silence.
The fourth movement, in contrast, is almost raucous, wildly captivating, fast and racy. I have seldom seen a conductor enjoy himself and have so much fun as Milanov did in the extended cymbal crash sequence that leads to the conclusion of a highly satisfactory symphony splendidly performed.
The next concert in the series will be “Heartfelt Virtuosity” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, preceded by a 3 p.m. talk for ticket holders. See www.PrincetonSymphony.org for more details. (Photo of Maestro Milanov and the orchestra at the conclusion of the concert.)
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