Nothing sends tingles up the spine quite like the cries of a rabid fan – and Tuesday night’s “Made in the USA” performance by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra culled many of those cries.
In a nod to the patriotism sweeping America, conductor Jerry F. Junkin and the DSO embarked on a tour celebrating some of the most influential academic American conductors and composers of the past 50 years.
With the exception of two pieces, the DSO remained planted in the crops of music composed from 1956 to 2001. Such contemporary sounds made for an accessible experience at the Meyerson.
Little compares to the heart-string plucking many Americans delight in at live performances of John Phillips Sousa’s reigning masterpiece, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
The anthem, used as the opening song, registered with more than a few listeners. (The rabid fan mentioned before? It was none other than a bespectacled, gray-haired gentleman whose clapping and consistent and persistent “bravos” rang the whole night through.)
Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide” trilled the thrills of the eternal optimist’s adventure the American way – with much spirit and conviction.
The selection of Voltaire’s 18th century satire on blind optimism was chosen, no doubt, twofold – to challenge antiquated European tradition and to showcase American talent.
Henry Fillmore’s “Rolling Thunder” blazed in after “Candide” as the most powerfully charged piece of the night.
Fillmore, a respected composer/bandmaster of the 1920s, filled his music with the flamboyance of fox-trots and waltzes. The trombone “smears” that colored “Rolling Thunder” were Fillmore’s signature and particularly effective amid the rest of the woodwinds and brass that carried the piece.
John Gibson’s “Horizon” was a melodic, soothing and pensive piece. “Don’t You See,” composed by Donald Grantham, drew inspiration from three African-American spirituals.
After a musical chronicle of lament, the second half of the performance soared with an expression of exuberance and climaxed with six virtuoso trumpet parts.
Grantham composed the work as a tribute to a much admired music professor from the University of Oklahoma, Stephen J. Paul. Paul died in April 2001, at age 48 – as unexpectedly as “Don’t You See” ends.
The abrupt resolution of the piece, in Grantham’s words, “cuts to the heart of the experience of loss.”
Against this backdrop, and after this emotional build up, the final piece of the evening first emerged, then climbed and finally dominated everything.
At 28 minutes long, with musings from the piano, pipe organ, harp and a full range of wind instruments, brass and percussion, David Maslanka’s “Symphony No. 4” proved the most ambitious composition.
Maslanka describes his inspiration in organic terms: “The roots of ‘Symphony No. 4’ are many. The central driving force is the spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life.”
“Symphony No. 4” was an appropriate end to a display of homegrown talent – a showcase of the red, white and blue blood – proof of American talent.
