The New Century Chamber Orchestra premiered Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Commedia dell’arte Thursday at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church. The new work is a theatrical concerto for solo violin, played by NCCO Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; string orchestra; and percussion. The percussion instruments were played not by designated percussionists but rather by various members of the string orchestra and provided more than just an added gimmick; they set the tone for each movement. The first movement, “Arlechinno,” featured a slapstick, establishing a catty aggressiveness. Third violist Jenny Douglas whipped those planks together with startling vigor. In traditional commedia dell’arte, slapsticks were used to simulate violent whacking sounds as puppets hit each other — hence the term slapstick humor. Here too, the effect was an uncomfortable mix of tense violence and humor as Salerno-Sonnenberg scratched, pecked, and clawed at her violin in response to frills and licks popping up from various corners of the orchestra.
The second movement, “Columbina,” calmed things down a bit, with third cellist Michelle Djokic setting a sultry mood with the tambourine. She approached the task with the same melodic phrasing as one would on a string instrument. It was fascinating to see string players playing percussion instruments. The instruments seemed a bit foreign in their hands, though the players were of course rhythmically accurate and had the usual string players’ musical sensitivity. (This is not to say that percussionists aren’t musically sensitive, just that the two types of musicians usually play with different kinds of energies.)
In the third movement, “Capitano,” Associate Concertmaster Dawn Harms seized the toy drum and, with exaggerated pomp, led the orchestra back to the funny-yet-intense mood. In a preperformance video projected on the church’s cross behind the orchestra, composer Zwilich described the effect perfectly: not quite militaristic drumming but more like Spongebob.
Here the effect was an uncomfortable mix of tense violence and humor.
The finale featured a chime tree, sending the music on a dreamlike ending and cadenza that contained nightmarish episodes yet eventually calmed down. Salerno-Sonnenberg dispatched the virtuosic solo part with her characteristic muscular energy and finesse.
Darkness Into Light
Another composer who created a piece about commedia dell’arte was Arnold Schoenberg, whose 1912 Pierrot Lunaire is a song cycle that reveals somewhat the same insane-but-calculating spirit that Zwilich captured. Schoenberg’s 1899 Verklärte Nacht contains the seeds of that sound world but is more grounded in Romantic harmony. Playing the latter work, the NCCO produced a dark sound; its reading was effective, though its overall ensemble level is not quite as amazing as it was last year, when the orchestra really gelled after touring. Likely due partly to constant personnel changes, partly to the passage of time, the ensemble seemed to have lost a measure of that magic.
The cello quartet in the slow movement was one of the highlights of the evening.
The concert opened with Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, a work that’s sometimes flippantly dismissed because it’s played every year by youth string orchestras. But by taking the piece seriously and carrying out all its dynamics, the NCCO elevated the piece to more than merely a warm-up curtain raiser. Principal cellist Susan Babini milked the emotion out of Grieg’s beautiful lines. The cello quartet in the slow movement was one of the highlights of the evening.
The orchestra finished off its 20th anniversary season by playing Happy Birthday to itself. In Happy Birthday Variations, Peter Heidrich fashions that ubiquitous tune into famous themes drawn from the chamber music repertoire. The ease with which he does this is a reminder of how interchangeable classical music’s building blocks can be. The variations are incredibly tacky, if occasionally hilarious. Coming right after the darkness of Verklärte Nacht, the juxtaposition of agony with comedy from the Zwilich premiere was again brought to mind.