KSO Current, Resourceful, Accomplished

   The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra showcased red, white and blue music Sunday afternoon in Northern Kentucky University’s Greaves Hall.
   Led by KSO music director James R. Cassidy, “Made in the USA” spanned 61 years (1936-1997), from Aaron Copland to John Adams.
   A distinguished visitor, clarinetist Ricardo Morales, did the honors in Copland’s 1948 Clarinet Concerto. It was a return visit for Morales, who studied with Ronald de Kant at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Now principal clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Puerto-Rican born Morales also has several family members who have spent time in the area, including members of the KSO and Cincinnati Symphony.
   Morales floated pure sweet high notes in the opening movement, which takes it cue from Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” with its gentle, lullaby theme and pastoral serenity.
   Copland’s cosmopolitan side bubbled up in the sparkling cadenza leading into the second and final movement. Jazz tinged with Latin rhythms served as a reminder that the concerto was dedicated to clarinetist and jazz great Benny Goodman. Morales grooved expertly here and indulged in some fireworks with the KSO as the work scurried to its upbeat, glissando conclusion.
   Cassidy opened the concert with Adams’ exhilarating “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” (1986). One of the composer’s most popular works, its four-and-a-half-minutes crackled with energy, setting the bar high for the afternoon’s performance. (The KSO is a non-union, free lance orchestra whose membership fluctuates annually as young musicians move on to other jobs.)
   “Celestial Nights” by Richard Danielpour (composer of “Margaret Garner” for Cincinnati Opera in 2005) proved a substantial and thought-provoking choice. Described by Cassidy as “a sound track for a life,” the 1997 work contrasted “the multi-tasking madness” of New York (the composer’s home town) and summer in rural New Hampshire.
   The city (Maestoso, Agitato) sounded busy, even frightening, with a queasy-sounding introduction and migraine-inducing brass and percussion. The stars came out in the Adagio, perhaps even a meteor shower in one proliferation of metallic sounds. All did not sound peaceful, however, despite the soft harp harmonics at the end.
   The Tango from Dominick Argento’s opera “The Dream of Valentino” about the 1920s film legend, made a fine filler, with its synthesized bandoneon (Argentine instrument like an accordion), castanets and slinky tango rhythms.
   Cassidy and the KSO went south of the border deftly with Copland’s ballet “El Salon Mexico” (1936) where the sound of guiro, trumpets and perky E-flat clarinet conjured a fiesta somewhere.
   Having heard and observed the KSO over the years (since 1992) has shown what can be done with talent, enterprise, imagination and limited resources. Programming flair has always been one of Cassidy and the KSO’s strengths. Savvy marketing and a willingness to approach the audience where they are have helped firmly establish the KSO as one of the area’s most important arts organizations.
   An example from Sunday's concert that other presenters should not blush from emulating is projecting information about the program to be heard (composers, repertoire, etc.) along with advertisements from local businesses onto a screen behind the performers before the concert. It works for the local cineplex and could lend a hand to its more cash-strapped, high art cousins.
   The KSO’s next concert is “Oz with Orchestra,” a screening of a digitally re-mastered print of “TheWizard of Oz,” Dorothy and all, with the KSO performing the score live. Concerts are 8 p.m. May 11 and 12 at Greaves. For tickets, call (859) 431-6216.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 19, 2007)