September 18, 2014
On Saturday, Sept. 13, Wellin Hall hosted A Far Cry, a world-renowned chamber orchestra featuring an innovative structure of on-stage leadership. Founded in 2007, the orchestra presented arrangements of works by Adés, Shostakovichs and Janácek. The program order served to highlight the latter piece, “Idyll” for string orchestra, a full and flowing work that contrasted with the darker and sharper ones.
Violinist Anne Rabbat introduced the orchestra and explained the unique system of self-conduction that gives the orchestra personality and vibrancy. Members of the orchestra shifted positions between pieces, with the principal players for each section changing between selections. Frequent eye contact among all players allowed the orchestra to begin and end pieces without a conductor. The unspoken communication among principals established the tempo, which could be both seen and heard by the audience.
Rabbat organized the order of the program to create a story, a “return to the Idyll” from two pieces that represent “vanishing or vanished ‘idylls.’” Musical tone shifted from disconnected and confused, to threatening and chaotic to an expressive mix of joyous and elegiac.
Performed first was “Arcadiana” by Thomas Adés, arranged for string orchestra by A Far Cry. The frequency of sliding string figures and lack of melodic unity among sections produced a feeling of instability and insecurity among listeners. Even within sections, players could shift from dormant to active in a matter of seconds, often without their fellow players playing in harmony.
The audible detachment among parts was bridged in a particularly touching middle movement, which felt like a mellow lull in a context of confusion. While certainly not a grandiose, overwhelming or intimidating first piece, it opened the door for the much darker next song.
Shostakovich originally wrote the middle selection as a birthday gift in 1968. The piece itself doesn’t exactly scream ‘happy birthday;’ instead, it features stoic seriousness, fiery conflict and tragic passion across three movements, respectively.
The sonata featured solo violinist Augustin Hadelich, a young, energetic and revered player who has appeared alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Philharmonic, to name a few. Active in the chamber music scene, he has also given recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Kioi Hall in Tokyo, among others.
Hadelich led A Far Cry with an energy that visibly moved every member of the orchestra. In sections played in unison, the movement of every string player’s bow seemed to model his. His movement and facial expressions mirrored the tone of the piece and contributed to the audible energy of the music. You could even hear his precision-timed breath between phrases, something any wind player would especially admire.
Unlike the preceding selection, the Shostakovich sonata included percussion. This provided additional edge to an already sharp piece and made its organized chaos even more potent. Originally written for piano and violin, this version of the sonata did not feel like an arrangement because of Hadelich’s brilliant performance. He remained still as stone with profound silence for what seemed to be tens of seconds as his final chord dissipated from Wellin Hall. The audience was clearly moved.
After the intermission, A Far Cry presented its feature for the night: Leoš Janácek’s “Idyll” for string orchestra. “Idyll,” written in 1878, contains seven movements of emotional and graceful music. A more traditional piece, its energy strongly contrasted with that of the preceding contemporary songs. The players were clearly enjoying themselves with this selection by the way they communicated. Every so often, a principal smiled to another or to members of his or her section and each would reciprocate.
Inspired heavily by Dvorák, “Idyll” is known for its intricate integration of emotion, phrases and expressive writing. Each movement of “Idyll” had a unique character, ranging from upbeat to melancholy. The emotion in the piece was not hard to identify or relate to, like the pieces of Shostakovich and Adès were.
After the performance, violinist Liesl Schoenberger explained that the emotional variation among all three pieces and the order in which they were arranged created a story to which listeners could relate.
“It feels so nice to be able to connect to an audience... I think people here understood what we were trying to communicate,” she said. The audience’s standing ovation of the orchestra at the end of the concert is testament to the success of the program’s development.
A Far Cry looks to expand its reach in the chamber music community by continually collaborating with renowned performers like Hadelich, commissioning new works for chamber orchestra and performing internationally. Its 2013-2014 season consisted of over 30 concerts in Boston and abroad. A Far Cry hopes to inspire a new generation of musicians with its unique method of leadership within the orchestra.
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