The Best Damn Symphony in Town

Our affection toward the Cleveland Chamber Symphony is well known to any regular readers of The Cauldron. We never miss a performance, rain, sleet or snow. We usually write them glowing reviews, sometimes with as many photos as possible to give them the recognition they deserve among the student body. This is an ensemble unique to CSU. The fast-moving, diverse and non-traditional group of students is perfectly fit to a musical group who can move seamlessly between gospel collaborations and experimental electronic classical music. The two were made for each other. Starting the evening's program, entitled Songs in Flight, was a tense yet sparse piece, Apparitions. Composer Randolph Coleman's self-critical notes in the program summarized the concept behind the piece. "Poetry as text is confusing, ambiguous, illusory, misleading, unsteady, undetermined and always slippery in meaning. Poetry as sound is all this and unsubstantial to boot." The piece for strings and piano had a dissonant feel, as the violins would lay down a harsh chord with respect to each other, and letting the piano and other strings fill out rough ideas like memories. Piano principal Nicholas Underhill plucked a few strings on the grand piano to widen the sound range on stage. Apparitions was a piece that relied more heavily on mood and atmosphere rather than melody to advance the piece, and served as a suitable opener for the melody that followed Cello soloist Regina Mushabac joined the group on stage, along with some percussion of the second piece of the evening, Narrative for Cello and Chamber Orchestra by Ross Lee Finney. The orchestra parts started the piece with a shimmering idea on the strings that was repeated throughout the two movements. Mushabac's solo gained more importance as the piece continued, and by the second movement, she played unaccompanied. Her playing emphasized both melodic sense along with speed and virtuosity. The percussion appeared for the first time in this movement, with a mellow vibraphone behind the shimmering strings. The Drinko Hall is usually about half to three quarters filled when the CCS performs, but last Monday's performance attracted enough fans to fill most the seats, including students from other Cleveland schools. Certainly one of the attractions was the third composition by a well-known composer, Olivier Messiaen, and his piece Oiseaux Exotiques (Exotic Birds). This piece came perfectly timed for the arrival of spring. Messiaen's theme for the piece was to replicate the sounds of various birdsongs, reputed in the score to be from forty-seven types of birds. The majority of these bird songs came from Angelin Chang's colorful piano playing. Her hands flew lightly over the keyboard like the birds she sought to emulate. The lines felt disjointed, accurately recreating the feeling of truly hearing a tree full of random bird sounds. Five percussionists were on stage for this piece with glockenspiel, xylophones and gong. The amount of music present occasionally seemed overwhelming, but the warmth of the composition made this one of the highlights of the evening. Concluding the evening was the distinctly American Clawhammer by Gerald Plain. Folk music has been one of the reoccurring themes of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony this year, and this piece hit a particularly American theme. A steady rhythm and melody opened up traditional and simple folk melody to the colors used by classical music. A harpsichord replaced the unique place of the banjo in the piece, named after a banjo technique. Concluding the piece was a comical burst of percussion that literally consisted of percussionist Janet Pemberton taking out a hammer and hitting nails into a board, an act that drew chuckles from the crowd. Our favorite ensemble concludes their season next month, Apr. 24 in Drinko with Powerful Voices. We'll be there.