Sun and Shadow at the CCO

Roberto Diaz

Tchaikovsky was eminently capable of expressing anguish and despair, but the composer of the “Pathetique” Symphony had a different assignment Sunday afternoon at Music Hall on an all-Russian program by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

Mischa Santora

Conducted by CCO music director Mischa Santora, the program included Tchaikovsky’s Serenade, Op. 48, one of his happiest works, and the serenely beautiful Andante Cantabile from his String Quartet No. 1, arranged for viola.

The gloom and doom fell to Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke, specifically the Andante from Prokofiev’s 1930 String Quartet No. 1 and Schnittke’s Monologue for Viola and Strings.  It made for a schizophrenic kind of program, but it provided a welcome showcase for the able (23) CCO strings.

Guest artist in Schnittke’s tenebrous Monologue was violist Roberto Diaz.  Former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, now president of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, Diaz met the challenge of both extremes handily.  Not incidentally, he also demonstrated what the viola can do.

Prokofiev was first up with his Andante, a stern movement, beginning in a melancholy march mode.  Memorial Hall’s unflattering acoustics seemed to intensify the impression, which was ultimately one of pain, struck home at one point with hammered non-harmonic tones by the upper strings against the basses.

Tchaikovsky’s Serenade, performed by the CSO earlier this month in Music Hall, got an up close presentation in Memorial Hall and a fine performance by Santora and the CCO.  The stately introduction led into a brisk, energized opening movement, following by a Waltz that momentarily turned the hall into a ballroom, or perhaps a turn by the corps de ballet.  The Elegy glowed with feeling and nuance, Santora knowing just how to taper one phrase seamlessly into another. 

The folk-themed finale was full of zest and good fun, capped by the always momentous sounding return of the introductory music.

Alto member of the violin family, the viola has built-in disadvantages as a solo instrument.  It is larger and heavier than the violin, but held under the chin like a violin, making it harder to get around on.  Pitched an octave higher than the cello, it is too small to project a cello-like sound.  (If it were larger, it couldn’t be held under the chin.)  So the viola is stuck with greater technical demands and less ability to be heard, which is also characteristic of middle voices in general.

A pair of 20th-century viola virtuosos, William Primrose (left) and Paul Doktor. Aspen, Colorado, July 1960.

The viola was pretty much ignored in solo literature until the 20^th century, when violists – and violist/composers like Paul Hindemith – began to expand its possibilities.  Most viola concertos were written after 1900, and now there are quite a few to choose from.  Schnittke wrote an important one in 1985.   His 1989 Monologue shares its seriousness and technical challenges, with lots of disjunct writing, leaping into the viola’s topmost register, etc.  Later in the 15-minute work, he displayed a dark, caramel tone, enhanced by fingering in high positions (he plays the ca. 1600 Ex-Primrose Amati once owned by the great Scottish violist William Primrose).

Darkest of all were the moments with just the lower strings against the viola.   The emotive effect of the whole was devastating, from Diaz’ soft spectral trills to a spectacular upward glissando by the CCO with a sharp cutoff at the top.  The Monologue ended on a faint, dispirited harmonic by Diaz.
 

To end the concert – and lighten the effect of the Monologue – Diaz played Tchaikovsky’s well-loved Andante Cantabile.  He made it pure romance, seemingly never playing on two strings when he could finger something entirely on one to enrich the tone quality. 

The CCO’s next concert is March 21 at 2 p.m. at Memorial Hall and 7:30 p.m. at Anderson Center in Anderson Township.  Mischa Santora will conduct.  Soloists are soprano Melody Moore and tenor Mark Panuccio in arias and duets from Italian opera.  Information and tickets at (513) 723-1182, ext. 102.