Composer Kenji Bunch and Pianist Monica Ohuchi

FAMILY PIANO CONCERTO AND MAHLER'S FIRST SYMPHONY AT MARIN CONCERT NOV. 8

The Marin Symphony’s Nov. 8 concert in the Marin Center featured the West Coast premiere of Kenji Bunch’s new Piano Concerto. Mr. Bunch, a Portland native and Juilliard School graduate, describes the work as a true “family project,” as he wrote it for his wife Monica Ohuchi, the evening’s soloist.

Mr. Bunch is a composer for whom dogma holds no currency, as he writes with an eclecticism that unapologetically blends the styles of pop and classical music, revealing influences of rock, electronica, film music, and more. He’s even given to borrowing musical themes from 1970’s TV shows.

And indeed this new addition to the composer’s oeuvre is no exception. It begins with a rhythmic fabric woven by the winds, harp, percussion, and sustained strings, outlining lush harmonies suggestive of ambient electronica. The piano enters on an offbeat “blue note,” allowing Ms. Ohuchi to immediately draw us in, as she articulates a somber melody, rich in its jazz influence. Intensity builds in the development, which eventually leads to a recapitulation of the opening fabric, now with piano participating. This soon evolves into an inevitable grand climax, which, by the composer’s own admission, is “pure Hollywood,” though justified by the quirkiness of the music embedding it.

The slow movement features more colorful writing for the piano and winds. And the finale is a Brazilian dance, rife with bongos, maracas, and woodblocks. It is obvious this piece was written for Ohuchi, as it plays to all her strengths, particularly her rich and colorful tone quality. This is the second work of Bunch’s that conductor Alasdair Neale and Marin Symphony have championed, and it most certainly will not be the last.

After an adventurous opening half, the orchestra returned to familiar territory with a single work, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major. The opening scene unfolded slowly, with the strings holding a sustained A, while in the distance, offstage trumpet fanfares call forth. Birdcalls are repeated in the clarinet, which brings us to the main theme, played by the cellos. The movement built in intensity, moving from hunting horn calls, to eerie harp lines, and an eventual frenzied climax into which Mr. Neale and his orchestra poured forth all their energy.

The second movement begins with a Ländler, an Austrian peasant waltz, introduced by the horns. This pedestrian waltz is balanced by a noble and gentler waltz, appearing in the middle of the movement. Such juxtaposition of the noble and the grotesque, the sublime and the banal, is exactly what Mahler’s symphonies are all about. The slow movement, a funeral march based on a minor-key version of Frère Jacques, demands control and great sensitivity in performance, not to mention orchestral balance, but the latter was at times missing in this evening’s performance. The fourth movement is a storm featuring sweeping themes in the brass, which performed with skill but ultimately lacked potency.

At first glance, the evening’s two works are quite dissimilar. An epic Late Romantic tour de force of a symphony pitted against a quirky, offbeat, and even “poppy” piano concerto. But just as Mahler blended the common and the noble, so too does Mr. Bunch blend the popular and the classical. And both with great results.