April 2 & 3, 2004 7:30 pm
Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls
Haldan Martinson, violin
Rouse – Infernal Machine [1981]
Sibelius – Violin Concerto
Mahler – Symphony no. 1
WCFSO gives concert of titanic proportions
By George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
April 8, 2004
Last weekend the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra gave an extraordinarily exciting program in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. ‘Musical Titans’ was directed by Music Director Jason Weinberger and featured guest violinist Haldan Martinson.
In keeping with Maestro Weinberger’s custom, the opening piece was contemporary, this one by American composer Christopher Rouse. If there was ever a piece of ‘program music,’ this is it. The sound and structure were exactly that of the title, ‘The Infernal Machine.’ The score just runs along line a machine [perhaps in perpetual motion], and the sounds are erratic and cacophonous like something mechanical: squeaks, clicks, clacks, buzzes and sputters. All totally wild, crazy and good fun. Yet, as the composer himself has said of the sounds, they are ‘more than a little sinister.’
Next came the monumental Violin Concerto in D Minor of Jean Sibelius, played by Martinson. It is widely considered the ultimate challenge for any aspiring violinist, but our soloist was clearly up to the challenge. This concerto is structured quite differently from other concerti. We do not hear the rapid shift of emphasis from solo instrument to orchestra, none of the traditional dialogue between the two, with one unit answering the other. Instead, the violin plunges right in at the beginning and remains dominant throughout the score. The mood has been likened to that of a Nordic winter, and rightly so. Heavily nostalgic, its colors are autumnal rather than spring-like. Many passages are played on the G string, giving a strongly melancholy flavor to the whole. Yet Martinson’s incredibly warm tone created an ultimate mood of hope and strength rather than despair.
Martinson is a violinist of great virtuosity. His consummate skill made the widely leaping intervals, the swift double-stopping and the many swift embellishments seem almost easy. His awesome technique and modest stage manner won the heart of the audience; their applause and bravos were deafening.
The last half of the program was devoted to a fine performance of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony. Appropriately subtitled ‘Titan,’ the work is enormous. It is long, broadly orchestrated and contains almost every musical device that can possibly be packed into one symphony.
The WCFSO’s exemplary performance of the Symphony No. 1 was exhilarating, and Weinberger’s conducting was unforgettably august. In what has gotten to be the norm this season, musicians and audience alike expressed their approval of the maestro’s triumph in a tumultuous ovation.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.