As readers of this blog now know by heart, I regard the South Dakota Symphony as a national exemplar. I’ve written about their Lakota Music Project, which connects the orchestra to Indian reservations throughout the state. I’ve extolled their ingeniously contextualized performances of Silvestre Revueltas’s Redes, of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, and – most recently – of Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto. And I’ve reported Alex Ross’s enthusiasm for the South Dakota Symphony in The New Yorker.
Now my friend Doug McLennan, founder/editor of the invaluable ArtsJournal, has chimed in with his own report on the Harrison concerto last October. Doug begins:
“That the piece hasn’t found a wider following is a shame. Horowitz considers it the best American piano concerto, and I might agree. From its grand bombastic opening and angular melodies, reflective pools and undulating rhythms, it is both original and evocatively American.”
Doug continues:
“The South Dakota players are good musicians, but what is extraordinary about them is the way they listen to one another, build on one another’s phrases and the willingness of [Music Director David] Gier to give them room to do it. Italian pianist Emanuele Arciuli was the soloist, a specialist in American music. He tore into the propulsive second movement, using percussion as counterpoint he could play with like a cat with a toy. The longer, angular open-toned melodies he gave room to breathe – they evoke for me the great Western expanses and mountains – and made the gamelan-inflected oscillations of the score supple rather than strict. In every way, this was an idiomatic performance that let it find its own language.”
The Harrison concerto was flanked by two examples of musical Orientalism – Ravel’s The Princess of the Pagodas and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. These sublime touristic visitations were juxtaposed with Harrison’s informed fusion of Eastern and Western idioms. Doug writes:
“To make the connections and context clear, the program began with a stage conversation between Gier and Horowitz and a short video introducing Harrison. And it wasn’t just informational – context isn’t just about more information, it’s about finding ways to locate what you’re hearing in a set of experiences that help give them meaning. So: an introduction to gamelan and how it can sound and is traditionally used.”
And finally:
“This orchestra doesn’t sound like others. Players come from around the Midwest, as far away as Minneapolis and Chicago, and Gier says they keep returning because they like the camaraderie and the freedom they have there. That players seem to listen differently he attributes in part to their work with musicians from the Lakota Indian nation in the western part of the state. . . . The encounters have taught Symphony musicians to listen to one another differently, and this has been infused into the larger group.”
In short: these are concerts that demand a wider audience and an influential role. I next visit South Dakota for Mahler’s Third Symphony this coming April. I’ll spend more than a week in South Dakota in February-March 2025 for “New World Encounters,” a festival exploring the American impact on the arts abroad. Our soloist will be Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (who will explore “Ravel and jazz”). Former US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, an inspired practitioner of cultural exchange, will also take part. We will partner with local universities. The result will be a grand cross-disciplinary adventure – an experimental showcase — funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities “Music Unwound” initiative. I can hardly wait.
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