Music review: New faces of Portland Youth Philharmonic pull off ...

Portland Youth Philharmonic's season opener represents a major but little-appreciated achievement, one that most ensembles don't have to pull off every year. Because it loses most of its most experienced members at the end of the previous season as high school seniors leave for college, every fall it's a substantially new orchestra. Because it aims to serve the most musicians possible, it's a very large orchestra by any standard, well-represented in all sections -- this year's roster includes five bassoons, seven horns and 14 cellos. And because its players aren't professional musicians, but rather students who divide their time among school and a variety of extracurricular academic and athletic activities, the annual act of creation has little time to come together, even with a November opening.

Yet it happens, and has for 89 years. This season's first concert, held Saturday night at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, introduced PYP's latest incarnation in fine form under the baton of music director David Hattner, with robust performances of new and old music and a world-renowned, locally beloved guest soloist.

James Stephenson's clarinet concerto "Liquid Melancholy," in its West Coast premiere, was both the high point and a rare treat, youth orchestras not typically given to programming large-scale new works. The title comes from Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451," and anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the clarinet could instantly recognize the aptness of the phrase for a concerto for the instrument, which has long captivated composers such as Brahms for its introspective, soul-scouring sound.

In Bradbury's novel, though, "liquid melancholy" is a sleep drug, and Stephenson's concerto was anything but sleep-inducing. Its outer movements were fast and challenging for both soloist and orchestra, with fast tempos, angular rhythms and bursts of instrumental color recalling Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev.

That it was co-commissioned by three youth orchestras -- Cleveland's Contemporary Youth Orchestra, Midwest Young Artists and PYP -- should not suggest that it was in any way simplified for young players. On the contrary, Stephenson had to accommodate the demands of an especially large ensemble (see above) and was unsparing in his own demands, pushing the orchestra to its technical limits; some tight rhythmic interplay, especially in the first movement, eluded their grasp.

The soloist was David Shifrin, artistic director of and frequent performer with Portland's Chamber Music Northwest. Listeners familiar with his playing could rest assured that he would bring out beautifully liquid legatos, but it was refreshing for those of us whose have heard him breeze his way through familiar pieces -- the Brahms and Mozart quintets, for example -- to see him put through his paces in something new. Stephenson had him racing around in blistering runs, leaping furiously between registers and executing long pianissimo high notes. It was a dazzling thrill ride, and as a former clarinetist, my jaw and gut nearly ached in sympathy.

Hattner led the orchestra in keenly sensitive accompaniment -- he's also an accomplished clarinetist -- and in strong, sweeping performances of the rest of the program, a suite from Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von N?rnberg" and Anton?n Dvor?k's Third Symphony.

--James McQuillen
Special to The Oregonian
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Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/11/music_review_new_faces_of_port.html

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