reviewvancouver: Vancouver Symphony Orchestrat, Appalachian Spring

This early evening concert, unusual for its start time, but also perhaps for its incidental theme of discovering new frontiers. Aaron Copland (1900-1990) lived through ninety years of the twentieth century. However, he is famous for the three ballets he composed music for around the time that coincided with the second world war. Appalacian Spring was the third of these three and perhaps the most quintessential. The work has since become one of the best known orchestral suites and a mainspring of American serious music.

Maestro Andrew Crust manages to bring out the joy and warmth of America's wide open spaces that the composer evokes. The final movement is particularly interesting in that Copland incorporates a variation on the common Shaker tune Simple Gifts. Fans of Riverdance will surely identify it as Lord of the Dance.

Charles Ives’ five-minute philosophical piece The Unanswered Question comes under “rarely, if ever” category in terms of live concert performance. It begins with a thirteen measure progression that doesn’t seem to go anywhere – perhaps that’s the whole point! Ives uses three musical elements to demonstrate his profoundly unanswerable question – What is existence? A solo trumpet repeatedly asks the question, gradually becoming more discordant. A woodwinds section attempts to provide an answer without ever finding one that matches the question. Strings simply provide a static background.

Award-winning Kevin Puts’ Contact was written expressly for the string trio Time for Three. The work, structured as a concerto in four parts: The first two parts could be described as melodic, whereas, the latter two parts are certainly more abstract. Puts has been unapologetic in admitting that the finished version is very much a product of the Covid pandemic. The inaugural performance was scheduled to be played in San Francisco in the summer of 2020, but was wisely (as it turned out) cancelled. Puts also freely admits the influence of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel of the same name. The three members of Time for Three (two violins + one stand-up bass) are classically trained musicians with a dynamic and engaging on-stage presence. The trio performs with an exuberant blend of jazz inflection and classic music form.

Were there any disappointments in a concert that was over before 8pm - perhaps just one. I would have liked to have heard the late Jocelyn Morlock’s Earthfall, which was to be performed the following evening at the Centennial Theatre, but for whatever reason not at the Orpheum. I think it was back in February, 2016 that I first heard this piece performed by the VSO, led by former music director, the late Bramwell Tovey and I confess, I haven’t heard it since.

The personal disappointment was more than compensated for by the generous encore offered by Time for Three. Virtuoso violinist Charles Yang served up a dazzling version of Frankie Valli’s “You’re much too Good to be True” while playing his violin like a ukulele. The guys ended the evening with an sparkling offering of their own composition “Joy.”