Musical modernism, the textbooks tell us, reverberates to Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and the 12-tone style of Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples. Much of the art-music of the past couple of generations, sometimes called “post-modern,” sounds to have another reference point: Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” an iconic example of the color-infused, harmonically spacious impressionist style.
Laura Elise Schwendinger’s “Waking Dream” for flute and orchestra, being performed this weekend by the Richmond Symphony and its principal flutist, Mary Boodell, audibly echoes the Debussy — might even be heard as an “answer song” to the prelude — and not just because the flute is the lead voice of both pieces.
Some of Debussy’s trademark orchestration techniques, such as single high notes dotting a soundscape of very low tones, shimmering string figures that evoke rippling water and pregnant or resonant silences, are what make “Waking Dream” sound so dreamy. The elaborated fanfares that are among solo flute’s chief contributions to the piece also harken back to Debussy and the impressionists.
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In a Casual Fridays concert previewing Saturday’s Masterworks program, Boodell’s crystalline tone production and naturally breathing phrasing, and deeply atmospheric playing by the orchestra, made a very persuasive case for “Waking Dream.” Schwendinger, who has been working with the orchestra this past week in a Music Alive: New Partnerships residency sponsored by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras, was understandably effusive in praising the performance. Better yet, the audience liked it.
The balance of this casual concert was given over to Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, commonly characterized as the most cheerful and pastoral of the composer’s four symphonies. Steven Smith, the Richmond Symphony’s music director, emphasized the music’s outdoorsy qualities in introductory remarks, explicitly enough that one sensed Brahms growling from the hereafter that he was responding to nature, not painting landscapes in sound.
Paced by French horn player James Ferree, oboist Gustav Highstein and rich yet brilliant string sections, the orchestra gave a sweeping account of the Brahms. Generally relaxed tempos did not sap the performance of momentum — nor, surprisingly, did stopping between each movement for Smith’s verbal introductions. The musicians proved adept at picking up where they left off.
