While each composer on Saturday night’s Des Moines Symphony program, John Adams, Antonín Dvořák, and Jean Sibelius, composed works shaped by political, national, and philosophical ideas, there was an unmistakable but far more intangible feeling attached to each piece. Under the guidance of Maestro Joseph Giunta and with the help of guest soloist Joshua Roman, the Des Moines Symphony endeavored toward the ideals of charisma and enchantment. Lush string playing and a captivating sense of sonic balance ruled the evening at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines in this penultimate concert of the season.
Cellist Joshua Roman | Photo by Jeremy Sawatzky
Cellist Joshua Roman returned for his second performance with the Des Moines Symphony, his first was in 2012, to play “Iowa’s favorite musical guest” Antonín Dvořák’s glorious Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104. A new music triple threat: cellist, composer, and Seattle’s Town Music Artistic Director, Roman is a delight to both watch and hear. In a blue-green velvet jacket (what singer worth her salt wouldn’t notice?), Roman commanded the stage and produced a self-assured sound from his very entrance in the Allegro. Beginning with the entrance of the second subject, Roman exploited the many instances to demonstrate his genteel legato. This overall character of Roman’s playing did not abate in the second movement Adagio ma non troppo which includes a recalling of the “Leave me alone” from the Vier Lieder, Op. 82. It was in this moment within the second movement that Roman displayed his most captivating soloistic playing.
The musicians of the Des Moines Symphony met Roman in this task. The stirring horn solo in the first movement played by principal Bret Seebeck did not go unnoticed which Gregory Oakes, clarinet, gracefully transported like a baton in a foot race. One of the most exciting aural elements of the evening was the exercising of balance between sections and soloists. What could have been a question of balance became clearer as a specific motivation to bring the sound of the cello solo from subtly noticeable to the forefront of the musical texture. This was particularly noticeable in the pas de deux incidences between Roman and flutist Kayla Burggraf; and furthermore, as the string sections really opened up to their most expressive playing which was confidently lead by concertmaster Jonathan Sturm.
It was primarily this type of blossoming sound in the strings that characterized all three pieces on the program. Each provided opportunities for the string sections to soar although they employ incredibly distinct sound worlds. While the Dvořák acts as the golden mean, Adams’ The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra) presents an immediacy of musical ideas contrasted with a vast weaving of inspirations in Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43. The Symphony percussionists seemed to take particular delight in playing the subversive rhythmic elements of the Adams but that delight did not seem to transfer to all of the sections of the orchestra. The enchantment unfurled in the sweeping violin lines which was also the case in the Sibelius. Even past the two-hour mark of the concert, the instrumentalists still filled the hall with the galvanizing and triumphant lines of the Finale.
If these pieces are showing the audience how politics and music combine, they are outlining the motivations from psychological connections rather than the actual social concerns themselves. The soaring and lush playing in the strings was the silk cord to the romance of devotion rather than an overzealous waving of any particular flag.
