Symphony No. 4 ‘Magma’ (2002)
(Concerto for solo percussion and orchestra)

Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington DC  10. 06. 2010, The National Symphony Orchestra, cond. Kristjan Järvi

The National Symphony Orchestra has two more serious programs this month before surrendering completely to the pops concerts of summer. On one of those programs Thursday night, Estonian talent was on full display.

Guest conductor Kristjan Järvi led a concert anchored on the complex fourth symphony of Erkki-Sven Tüür, who also hails from Järvi's native Estonia.

The work, completed in 2002, began as a concerto commission for Scottish percussion virtuosa Evelyn Glennie but evolved into a one-movement symphonic work with solo percussionist. Glennie, who has been profoundly deaf since age 12, performs in these concerts at the Kennedy Center as part of the 2010 International VSA Festival, sponsored by the International Organization on Arts and Disability.

The opening theme evoked the symphony's subtitle, "Magma," as glissandi spewed through the orchestra over an eructating pedal tone in the contrabassoon. Glowing clusters formed in smears, with embers floating in high woodwind short notes and metallic percussion sparks.

Glennie moved from one set of instruments to the next spread out like an irresistible candy store of whiz-pops, doodads and noisemakers on the apron of the stage, marked off by three large musical sections. Her gyrations at a large drum kit in the second section recalled Tüür's youthful participation in the progressive "chamber rock" band In Spe, complete with a Buddy Rich-style apoplectic solo as a cadenza.

In the third section, the magma flows returned, only for the score to take a detour through a Caribbean-inflected dance, with Glennie on conga drums, culminating in a finale in which she returned to many of the previous instruments.

Järvi had a relaxed manner, preferring playful gestures, broad body movements and humorous looks to a strictly clear beat. [...]

Performing Arts Center, Newark. USA premiere 10. 10. 2008. New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, cond. Neeme Järvi. 

NJSO comes through with flying colors

It's always heartening to see difficult things done just the right way, as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra did in Newark and New Brunswick this weekend. The NJSO presented new music – typically a challenge in the classical realm – not dutifully or dryly, but with pizzazz and a sense of occasion.

Of course, it helped that the music itself – Erkki-Sven Tuur's Symphony No. 4 "Magma" – was intriguing and outgoing, both minimalist and maximalist in the Estonian composer's rock- and jazz-influenced way. And it was the Scottish Evelyn Glennie, the world's top classical percussionist, playing the work's concerto-like solo role. Neeme Järvi was back as conductor, too, starting his final season as NJSO music director by continuing to promote the music of his native country. But there were other touches that framed the music ideally, such as the atmospheric lighting.

In such a visual age, it's odd that this isn't done more often, but the NJSO put the house lights down, the players' music stands lit by lamps. Glennie's exotic battery of instruments – from vibraphone and marimba to trap drums and gongs, even a big metal spring – was arrayed in four stations in front of the orchestra and illuminated from below with red and purple lights. As rock bands discovered ages ago, the effect made for a fuller, more concentrated sensory experience.
Tuur, who turns 49 this week, didn't just fly in to take a bow at the NJSO's North American premiere of his work. He was in the state for the week, sitting in on rehearsals and giving seminars for young composers and percussionists. Tuur and Glennie, 43, also engaged with the audience at post-concert chats. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center was less than half full on Friday, mystifyingly; it was encouraging, though, that dozens of listeners stayed to ask about the soloist's instruments and the composer's inspiration.

Glennie, made a dame commander of the British empire last year, is a natural communicator, charming the crowd with her Scottish burr as she talked about the ergonomics of beating on things for a living (she avoids practicing too much). The bookish Tuur praised the sound of the orchestra and the way "the panorama of colors" mixed in the hall. He also explained how he searched car-repair shops to find just the right spring for the aural effect he envisioned, finding that those from "Opels sound best."

All about flow and color, "Magma" is also a kind of instrumental theater (and so it came across better in the flesh than it did on the recording released last year featuring Glennie and Järvi's eldest conducting son, Paavo). Watching Glennie play – even striking a woodblock or fingering a chime as she walked from one percussion station to another – is fascinating in and of itself, as well as inspiring. Famously, she is deaf, playing barefoot to better feel the vibrations of the orchestra and having to keep a close eye simultaneously on the conductor, the score and her instruments.

Tuur's percussion writing is never square or clattering, the rock and jazz influences not too blatant. Glennie showed her incredible sense of time and texture as the sounds moved from the metallic to the woody and back again, including a backbeat-driven solo cadenza on the drum kit. A highlight of the piece was the beautiful passage for five-octave marimba, mellifluous over dark glissandi and long sustained notes in the strings. The end was striking, as a flourish on vibraphone rang out as if charged by electricity, eventually falling away under a last stroke of the chimes. [...]