(What's Mozart Doing there?)
The Armenian proverb “We learn more from a clever rival than a stupid ally” was much in evidence in the second half of Friday’s Oakland East Bay Symphony concert. During that segment, the music of three little-known Armenian composers proved that derivative music can nevertheless be persuasive. In what might be termed an “affinity” concert, which was themed “Notes From Armenia,” Music Director Michael Morgan preceded this not-so-beaten programmatic path with the trodden one of Mozart’s “Prague” symphony and Aram Khachaturian’s violin concerto, greatly pleasing attendees and recognizing the support of 63 Armenian-community donors.
Still unrivaled for the crown of greatest classical Armenian composer, Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) cannot fail to engage listeners with his multitude of dance rhythms, lyrical outpourings, unexpected harmonies, and fervent arabesques. Violin soloist Mikhail Simonyan, born in Siberia to Russian and Armenian parents, now resident in New York City (and an avid skydiver), was more than up for the high-flying technical challenges of the music. The 24-year-old impressed most with his confidence, emotional maturity, rapidity, and poise, though slightly less so with his volume and intonation.
Why the non sequitur of a Mozart symphony began the program is a mystery, especially when there are so many colorful and original pieces available by the greatest Armenian-American composer, Alan Hovhaness. Nor did the holding-pattern rendition by Morgan and the orchestra help matters.
Orchestra Outdoes Itself
Thankfully, however, the orchestra came alive with a stirring performance after intermission of the Symphony for Timpani and String Orchestra, by Edvard Mirzoyan (b. 1921). Over half an hour in length and full of tricky contrapuntal writing and precise accents, the 1962 symphony could have sent many a less-well-prepared band into a muddied tailspin. For me, this was one of the Oakland Symphony’s most impressive performances of a single work.Mirzoyan’s symphony is abstract and highly indebted to Shostakovich in style, but, aside from a few reminiscences of the “whirlwind” movement of the Russian master’s Tenth, Mirzoyan does not suffer by comparison. His music is consistently engaging and dramatic. I particularly enjoyed the several fugal sections, ominous themes in the cellos and basses, the wry take on Chopin’s “Minute” waltz in the second movement, and the Rossinian energy of the fourth-movement finale. The only structural flaw was the abrupt ending of the first movement, which put the piece off-balance, with unanswered questions unresolved by subsequent movements.
If Hovhaness couldn’t have been brought in to replace Mozart, how about more of Gahzaros Saryan (1920-1998)? The two of four movements performed from his Armenia: Symphonic Panels, which followed next, were quite lovely. What do the other two sound like?
The evening concluded spectacularly with two short but spirited choral works. Composed in the Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky manner by Edgar Hovhannisyan (1930-1998), they were the anthem Yerevan Erebooni, honoring Armenia’s present and past citadels, and the martial Sardarapat, lauding the battle on May 22, 1918, which reversed the Turkish advance on the Armenian capital in World War I. The Seemorgh Ensemble and “select singers from various Bay Area choral groups” sang lustily the proud lyrics:
But we did not fall, we always exist. We did not vanish and will still come.
To prove the point of Armenian durability, Maestro Morgan whipped out, to great acclaim, an encore of Khachaturian’s “Saber Dance” from his Gayane ballet.