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There were some big draws to the September 30, Soundstreams\u2019 season opening concert at Koerner Hall. For one, famed British violinist Daniel Hope was in town to present the Canadian premiere of contemporary\u00a0music superstar Max Richter\u2019s The Four Seasons Recomposed<\/i>. There was also a rare\u00a0performance of 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams\u2019 piece,\u00a0Dream in White on White<\/i>. Montreal-born composer Paul Frehner, was also there to premiere his new work,\u00a0Mojave Dreaming<\/i> –\u00a0a piece\u00a0inspired by nature, weather, the seasons and atmospheric phenomena.<\/p>\n
The occasion started with a slow passage through \u201ca treeless windswept landscape of Western Alaska.\u201d Composed in the early 1990\u2019s by US-based composer John Luther Adams,\u00a0Dream in White on White<\/em>\u00a0<\/i>is essentially an early sketch for an idea that was later realized in 1998 as\u00a0In the White Silence.\u00a0It was curious that Soundstreams\u00a0chose to program the early draft\u00a0over its more mature form, but it certainly has it charms.<\/p>\n Adams\u2019 music is always a commitment to process, and the Soundstreams Virtuoso String Orchestra – conducted by Joaquin Valdepe\u00f1as, seemed to be at a loss as how to interpret its austere, glacially slow temperament. Valdepe\u00f1as conducted it with a dry mechanical distance, and focused on exploring the vast background string clusters, leaving the foreground\u00a0material to fend for itself against the Yukon timber-wolves.<\/p>\n Despite the disappointing start, Paul Frehner\u2019s\u00a0Mojave Dreaming\u00a0<\/i>was the redemption we were looking for. The piece was totally vibrant and alive with imagination. Scored for string orchestra and tape, it was loosely inspired by Vivaldi\u2019s\u00a0Seasons. <\/i>Instead of focusing on depicting all four seasons, Frehner fixated\u00a0on an endless desert summer, with melting trees, hypnotizing mirages, and swirling sand storms.<\/p>\n This was a psychedelic affair, akin to trying to find the time of day on Dal\u00ed\u2019s melting clock. Valdepe\u00f1as seemed to have great fun exploring the\u00a0various programmatic elements which came in-and-out of focus. First violinist, Stephen Sitarski was particularly impressive with his near-flawless high register intonation and fancy fretwork.<\/p>\n After an intermission, the evening was just getting started with Max Richter\u2019s\u00a0Recomposed Vivaldi: The Four Seasons\u00a0<\/i>(2012), under the bow\u00a0of the great British violinist, Daniel Hope. The piece is a kind of avant-garde classical remix of Vivaldi’s iconic masterpiece.<\/p>\n Let me start by saying a lot of people confuse Max Richter\u2019s Recomposed<\/i> project as being about updating the Four Seasons for a contemporary audience. There is a kind of intellectual hurdle to overcome\u00a0when first hearing the premise of the piece. Daniel Hope told the story before the Koerner Hall\u00a0crowd\u00a0of how he first responded to the idea of the piece saying \u201cwhat\u2019s wrong with the original?\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing is wrong with it. The Seasons is so much more than a mere\u00a0piece of music. It has become an idea, a musical symbol that has richly benefited from the early music world\u2019s constant redefinition of period sound and style. Richter\u2019s reworking is in fact a baroque idea \u2013 an exploration of repetitive sequences and variations. Not minimalist\u00a0per se<\/i>, but close. Richter shares a similar spirit of baroque passion and sensibility, with a twist of late-romantic Korngold film music. If you allow yourself to hear the work through the filter, it works. Richter\u2019s remix plays with your musical expectations and acts like a cut-up collage, composed of recognizable clips and cuts of an image being assembled in real-time.<\/p>\n Hope makes it entirely his own, and plays the achingly lush lines \u2013 that sound very much like Purcell at times, with an extraordinary poise and depth. This is at once a celebration of spring\u2019s rejuvenation. It\u2019s endless summer days give way to the smell of burning leaves and dim-lit autumn mornings. The season ends with a whimper – a winter\u2019s sigh that brings to a close what was once alive with boundless energy.<\/p>\n Richter is a polymath, who rides the cleavage between classical music\u2019s future and past. Vivaldi is lovingly remembered not through another endless re-re-interpretation, but from the point of creative genesis. The composition itself. Why not?<\/p>\n *A special mention regarding the superb sounding harpsichord, performed by Gregory Oh. \u00a0It sounded unusually wonderful.<\/p>\n A well deserved standing ovation \u2013 bravo.<\/p>\n