Thursday, October 10, 2024

This gala celebrates so much: Yo-Yo Ma’s first solo appearance with the PSO, the PSO’s hundred years of existence, and the eager, faithful and generous support of Portland audiences. It is the audiences who make the PSO’s milestone possible, and the milestone warrants the appearance of classical music’s most celebrated instrumentalist.

For this once in a lifetime concert, Music Director Eckart Preu has chosen three works that in turn celebrate their composers’ homelands: Sydney Guillaume’s rollicking tribute to Haiti, Ottorino Respighi’s affectionate portrait of the Eternal City, and Antonín Dvořák’s magnificent cello concerto, infused at every turn with his unmistakable orchestral colors and Czech spirit.

Sydney Guillaume, the newcomer here, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1982. He now lives in California and has a busy modern career as a composer, conductor, and singer. He led the Maine Allstate Choir in 2018. Lavil Okap is Haitian Creole for the City of Cap-Haïtien. Guillaume wrote this piece in 2020 to celebrate the city’s 350^th anniversary. Its 13 minutes use indigenous rhythms and melodies to depict the life, both historic and current, of this beautiful and troubled island.

Pines of Rome is Ottorino Respighi’s most frequently performed work, followed by another of his Roman trilogy, Fountains of Rome. The third work, Roman Festivals, has never gained the popularity of its companions. Pines was first heard in Rome in 1924 and has remained popular with musicians and audiences ever since. Critics have been less kind, finding the music superficial or sentimental. They miss the point of Respighi’s work, in which he pairs the love and astonishment he feels for his adopted city with absolutely brilliant use of the orchestra. The combination effectively communicates the most appealing aspects of Italian life.

Dvořák’s wrote his sole cello concerto in New York City in 1894, though he continued to revise it for at least a year after its completion. It is not only the composer’s greatest concerto, but the iconic work of the Western classical repertoire for solo cello and orchestra. Yo-Yo Ma has recorded it three times. For another splendid, and immensely popular work by Dvořák this season, join us next June for a performance of the “New World” Symphony!

– Martin Webster