Symphony Audience Chimes in on Koplow's Tribute to Corbett

(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 7, 1992)

Composer Philip Koplow is on to something. If you want to excite audiences about contemporary music, make them a part of it.

And he did just that at Friday night's Cincinnati Symphony concert at Music Hall. Near the end of his "Legacy: J. Ralph Corbett," which received its world premiere under Jesús López-Cobos, more than 800 audience members chimed in on tone bars donated by NuTone (founded by Corbett in 1934).

They looked quite pleased with themselves. Pleased and prepped, it seemed, for Lynn Harrell's gripping performance of Witold Lutoslawski's 1970 Cello Concerto. In fact, by the time Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony rolled around, the excitement was about over.

"Legacy," a loving tribute to the late Cincinnati philanthropist J. Ralph Corbett, allies a variety of textures and moods. It begins with a gentle choral meditation on Psalm 19:20, sung in Hebrew by six choirs aligned throughout the hall. Oodles of vibrating metal - glockenspiel, vibraphone, even an anvil - color the music, which moves into an extended elegy, including a "duet" for tubular bells.

At one point it takes on an ecstatic glow, almost like the arrival of the mother ship in a Spielberg sci-fi epic. At another, raucous brasses preview the Lutoslawski.

The audience got to do their thing near the end by repeating a five-chord progression on cue from assistant conductor Keith Lockhart and flashing lights on the stage.

Koplow, composer-in-residence at Northern Kentucky University, has been a pioneer in writing audience participation works, an idea particularly fitting for Corbett, whose generosity has benefited the entire community.

Harrell was a heroic protagonist in the Lutoslawski. Set upon by violent outbursts in the brasses, the cello line builds to the point of searing emotional intensity before being crushed by the orchestra with the subtlety of an air raid. It concludes on a note of hope, however, as the cello builds to an assertive conclusion. Harrell, a warm, communicative artist, conveyed all this to the audience, which responded with a repeated ovation.

Concert review - CINCINNATI SYMPHONY. Friday night, Music Hall. Jesús López-Cobos, conductor. Lynn Harrell, cello. May Festival Youth Chorus. Northern Kentucky University Chorale. Princeton High School A Capella Choir. Sycamore, Walnut Hills and Winton Woods High School Choruses. Keith Lockhart, assistant conductor. PROGRAM: Koplow, "Legacy: J. Ralph Corbett" (world premiere). Lutoslawski, Cello Concerto. Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4. Attendance: 2,004. Repeat: Tonight, 8:30, Music Hall.