Pittsburgh Symphony - Friday October 23, 2009

This was a regular PSO subscription concert. Named "Made in America" for obvious reasons, Copland's 'El Salon Mexico', Sam Barber's Overture to the School for Scandal, Adagio for Strings and Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengence comprised the first half of the show. John Williams' Horn Concerto played by our own Bill Caballero and a return to Copland with the Four Dance episodes from 'Rodeo' finished up the show.

I prepped for the show by listening to Thomas Schippers on the Barber pieces, Copland conducting his own work, John Williams Oboe and Violin Concertos (since his Horn Concerto hasn't been recorded). I do like preparing for shows, classical, jazz or whatever, but it can be a set up for disappointment. Schippers is one of the great Barber guys and Copland has some authority with his own music. Not to worry though as Leonard Slatkin is another of the great ones with this kind of American classical music, that I would call mainstream conservative. And the PSO seems to have always done this kind of music well as long as I have been coming to shows here (since 1981).

So how did things work out? I was not disappointed except by the fact that Anita was not feeling well and I had to go solo. I only spoke with one fellow who was sitting behind me who asked me what it meant in the program that Barber's music was called 'lyrical'. I came up with some quick answer about Barber writing recognizable melodies as opposed to Beethoven who likes fragments of melodies. This seemed to satisfy him.

Copland and Barber certainly have much in common, including, I think, that while they may be lyrical and melodic, being incisive and precise is extremely important. Barber especially has lots of little delicate interweavings through his pieces that Slatkin and the PSO captured. Barber's Overture to the School for Scandal is a favorite of mine. My one quibble is that I would have liked the achingly beautiful Oboe solo in the middle to have gotten more emphasis. Slatkin instead emphased the clarinet phrase that comes shortly after. I think my slight disappointment is something I did to myself by wanting it a certain way. This piece does need to explode at certain moments and it did. The strings were beautiful in the Adagio. The Medea piece was excellent as well though I have always felt that Barber did not capture to horrors of a mother murdering her children. He may have been too gentle of a soul to do so.

The John Williams Horn Concerto was the longest piece on the program, played by PSO principal horn, William Caballero. It is hard to believe he has been the principal here for 21 years. His predecessor here, Howard Hilyer, had a beautiful tone but was so completely unreliable at the end of his time that horn solos were painful and cringe filled events. Bill Caballero is and has been so reliable that it might be easy to take him for granted. Williams' concerto is in five movements and seems more like a tone poem for Horn and Orchestra in that it doesn't follow traditional form and doesn't end with a big finish. Each movement has an extra-musical name and bit of poetry attached. The music itself fits in well with the rest of the mainstream conservative rest of the program. John Williams seems to keep his movie music consciousness separate from his writing of regular classical music. I wonder how he actually does this but this concerto fits in well with the other concertos of his I have heard, serious and somber, well crafted but not necessarily much fun. Bill Caballero brought it of seemingly effortlessly. I can't imagine even it's dedicatee, Chicago's Dale Clevenger, playing it better. It was great to hear a modern horn concerto as opposed to Mozart and Straus yet again.

Overall, a great show, amazing horn player who we are lucky to have here, great orchestra and conductor working together on music they could probably play in their sleep but instead made sound fresh and brilliant.