Concert Review
Seattle Symphony: A night of honors and a new work

By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times music critic

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Violist Norma Durst has played for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for 56 years.

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As conductor Gerard Schwarz and two musicians entered the stage, the applause started — and grew louder, as many in the audience got to their feet in tribute. They weren't applauding for a specific performance: These two musicians, Norma Durst and John DeJarnatt, were being honored upon their retirement from the orchestra.

And the audience was making it clear that these players are valued. As Schwarz described Durst's concurrent career as a music teacher in the schools, one audience member (surely a former student) bellowed, "Thank you, Norma!"

These annual retirement ceremonies, always affectionately homespun occasions, are reminders of how long these musicians serve their communities: 56 years for violist Durst, 36 for oboist DeJarnatt, and 41 for a third player — violist Renate Stage — who was unable to attend.

The retiring musicians richly deserved the ovation.

Thursday night's program was remarkable in other ways. First, there was the graceful traversal of the Bach Concerto in C Minor for Oboe and Violin, with Nathan Hughes and Maria Larionoff giving a smoothly lyrical account of the respective solos. (Larionoff later served as concertmaster for the challenging symphonic works that followed; regular concertmaster Ilkka Talvi is out for the season following shoulder surgery.)

The world premiere of the Symphony No. 4 by respected American composer John Harbison was commissioned in honor of the orchestra's centennial season (by Richard and Connie Albrecht). It proved a high-energy, hard-driving work, rhythmically engaging in a way that sometimes suggested Bernstein. The fourth movement, "Threnody," is clearly the emotional core of the symphony.

The work as a whole is enormously accomplished, brilliantly scored, full of interesting ideas (such as an extended conversation in which a solo line is successively picked up by a half-dozen principals). Is it also a beautiful work? That is less clear; perhaps repeated performances will yield more dividends.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra Gerald Schwarz conducting; soloists Nathan Hughes (oboe) and Maria Larionoff (violin). Benaroya Hall, Thursday night (repeated at 8 tonight and 2 p.m. tomorrow; 206-215-4747.

As it is, Harbison depends strongly, perhaps too insistently, on a musical language of almost-consonance: a minor chord in the upper instruments against a major chord in the lower ones, for instance.

Pairing the Harbison work with another driving, energetic score — Stravinsky's famous "The Rite of Spring" — may not have been the optimum choice; by the end of the evening many in the audience (not to mention some in the orchestra) looked exhausted.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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