Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 12:00 AM


Concert Review
Northwest Chamber Orchestra opens season with demanding works
By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times music critic

Let it never be said that the Northwest Chamber Orchestra took the easy route in its season-opening gala. If nothing else, this program must hold the ensemble's record for "most notes played," with two very big and very busy works by America's best-known minimalists, John Adams and Philip Glass.

The concert's focus was the "After Lewis and Clark" Piano Concerto No. 2 of Glass, who wrote the piece for pianist Paul Barnes and Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai. Both soloists were on hand for Sunday's performance. They also recorded the piece earlier in the weekend, so Sunday's audience had the benefit of hearing a work that had been considerably polished.

Barnes has memorized the concerto, no small feat in terms of its endlessly undulating arpeggios and its many tiny variations on the same themes. It's an impressive feat; Barnes' performance was no less impressive, making the most of this energetic score.

Nakai's solos, on two different flutes, were haunting and beautifully evocative, demonstrating remarkable finesse. Unfortunately, these more delicate instruments are no match for the much louder piano and orchestra, and Nakai was occasionally hard to hear. Perhaps if he had stood to play his solos, they would have penetrated the hall's acoustics more strongly.

Conductor Gothóni expertly guided the orchestra up and down, waxing and waning in those motoric string arpeggios and some grand swooping of woodwinds. He did much the same in Adams' "Shaker Loops," where the orchestra chugs away ceaselessly at oscillating patterns, introducing tiny variations and modulations that gradually change the course of the piece. Intonation was occasionally a problem in what must have been an exhausting work to play — and occasionally one a little exhausting to hear.

The program opener was the "Concerto Serenade" of Northwest native William Bolcom. It's an early work, written just before the composer joined the University of Washington faculty for a single year in 1965. Jazzy, jaunty, syncopated and angular, the work featured concertmaster Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi as soloist. (Her husband, former Seattle Symphony concertmaster Ilkka Talvi, served as concertmaster for the Bolcom, and played the rest of the program among the violins.) Kransberg-Talvi played with her customary bold, beautiful tone and strong, confident technique.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com

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