Pianist Elizabeth Dorman

VSO'S CONCERT MUSIC OF TIME, MUSIC OF PLACE

The Vallejo Symphony's final concert of the 2024-2025 season was performed April 27 in their usual venue, Vallejo's historic Empress Theater. Built in 1911 as one of the first small “movie palaces” in northern California, it went through various incarnations before being lovingly restored, complete with sculptured gilt scalloped ceiling, a snug lobby and more recently, and very welcome: an adjoining reception cocktail lounge that's also a performance venue.

For this concert the compact 471-seat main auditorium was the setting for three pieces reflecting what might be considered a golden age of jazz-based classical music: French composer Milhaud's 1923 ballet, “La Creation du Monde,” Gershwin's 1925 Piano Concerto in F, and Grofé’s Grand Canyon suite from 1931.

Milhaud, a member of the group of avant-garde French composers nicknamed “Les Six,” was first exposed to “le jazz hot” in Paris nightclubs, but it was a visit to New York’s Harlem in 1922 that motivated him to include its elements in his writing. The short ballet was a similarly avant-garde collaboration with other famous artists and choreographers. It's based on an African folk tale and scored for an 18-piece orchestra including both tympani and a second highly multitasked percussionist, a good fit for both the cramped orchestra pits of the era and the intimate size of the Empress.

The piece is in the form of a prelude followed by five sections, some only several minutes long. It opens with a flowing four-note figure which will recur at various points throughout, and which one might find reminiscent of scenes from Gershwin's “Porgy and Bess,” but the reminiscence would go better the other way, since the latter was not written until 12 years later. Milhaud and Gershwin were friends, and a recording exists of them playing the original two piano version of Gershwin's 1924 Rhapsody in Blue. The prologue probably served as a sort of overture, since there's a note in the score at its end, “Rideau” (French for curtain) suggesting that this is when it should rise.

From that point forward, the sections alternate between lyrical, usually with the four-note motif, and unabashedly jazzy, with a figure of chromatically descending two-note minor second groups. An orchestral miscue at the beginning of the fourth section (near rehearsal number 35 in my score) led conductor Marc Taddei to briefly halt the playing to allow the musicians to regroup and move forward, which they did with no further issues. The audience response at the end was enthusiastic.

The stage was then reset for Gershwin's Concerto in F, and this revealed one of the Empress’ logistical challenges, as there isn't much stage room for a full symphony orchestra, let alone the hall’s concert piano. Just about every inch was used, to the point that Mr. Taddei pianist Elizabeth Dorman could only reach the stage by coming up from the audience area rather than from the nonexistent backstage. The performance went well, although I sometimes felt a little discrepancy in expression between the soloist and the orchestra in sections when both were playing together. I found myself wondering whether this may have had something to do with Ms. Dorman using a tablet score on the instrument’s music rack. However her pianistic technique was impressive, and the piece's conclusion was once again greeted with enthusiastic applause.

The afternoon’s final piece was Grofé's one popular Suite, and here there is a connection with Gershwin, whose most famous piece (Rhapsody in Blue) was originally written in 1924 for two pianos. When orchestra leader Paul Whiteman added it to his famous “Program of New Music,” he had it orchestrated by none other than his band pianist and arranger, Grofé.

This was an excellent performance from an orchestral standpoint, including splendid solos from concertmaster Joyce Lee in the famous “On the Trail” section, but it revealed another of the Empress Theater's challenges, this time an acoustic one. To accommodate the orchestra's 60-odd players, the stage must be open all the way to its solid brick back wall, reflecting the sounds of the brass sitting directly in front of it straight out into the auditorium. For this concert, the tympani (stage left) and percussion (stage right) were placed in front of angled sidewalls, further amplifying them. The woodwinds were quite audible from the seats halfway up the steeply raked rear section of the audience, but with the stage enlarged from its movie theater days by being pushed out at least three rows of seats worth beyond the original proscenium arch, the strings were deprived of any “architectural band shell” enhancement, and this affected both overall balance and the ability to hear individual instruments.

Even so, it was an inspiring performance. The “Sunrise” and “Painted Desert” sections allowed the strings to shine, and of course “On the Trail” is a perennial audience favorite. This reviewer recalls being terrified of the “Cloudburst” section as a child every time his parents played the recording, and the Vallejo Symphony's rendition was no less powerful.

The conductor announced next season's programs, with the theme “London Symphonies, Vallejo's Orchestra,” and in addition to three of Haydn's London Symphonies, there will be plenty of other interesting music to look forward to, including Berlioz's “Nuits d'Ete'” with mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz (see Classical Sonoma's review of her performance of Mahler's “Das Lied von der Erde” this past January), the Saint-Saëns cello concerto and the world premiere of a new piece by John Williams.