Concert Review: Pop piece by Trinity composer has deep roots

A raucous, delicious and cunningly crafted new piece by Trinity University composer Timothy Kramer opened Friday's concert by the San Antonio Symphony in the Majestic Theatre. Music director Larry Rachleff had the orchestra play Kramer's Party Favors twice before moving into familiar territory: Camille Saint-Sa ns' heroic Cello Concerto in A Minor, with Alban Gerhardt the superb soloist; Manuel de Falla's Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat; and Claude Debussy's coloristic showpiece La Mer.

The title Party Favors alludes to the good-time American pop and jazz idioms that Kramer adapts in the work's several sections. Driven by an enormous percussion battery, the music is funky, bouncy and swingy in ways that evoke the 1960s and '70s.
But this score also sends roots deep into classical music tradition.

The thematic material is based on the notes B-flat, A, C, B-natural in the German system, B-A-C-H. Kramer joins the line of Franz Liszt and others who used the same motive in homage to J.S.

Bach. Kramer most often uses the four notes simultaneously, as a highly dissonant tone cluster, but the theme also appears in sequence, most notably in a broad horn solo Jeff Garza in fine fettle just before the final stretch.
The nervous, persistent rhythmic patterns also show the influence of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, with the harmonies and colors of Stravinsky's Petrouchka also making a brief appearance near the end.

So the score draws from a wide watershed a risky proposition, but Kramer is always in full control of his materials and always makes the music distinctly his own. It's great fun to hear.
Its interweaving rhythmic intricacies require taut teamwork from the players and great skill from the conductor.

No problem. The performance was polished and spirited.
Gerhardt's dark, beautifully grained sound, astonishing agility and urgent, authoritative phrasing left nothing to be desired in the Saint-Sa ns concerto, a landmark of the romantic temperament.

There was a muscular athleticism in this performance, Gerhardt throwing himself into the music with complete abandon.
This orchestra can play Falla's suite with its eyes closed, and at times Rachleff didn't even bother to conduct. The result was wonderfully fluid and relaxed.

Garza, English horn principal Stephanie Shapiro and principal oboist Mark Ackerman delivered splendid solos.
In La Mer, Rachleff focused more on glistening details than on the atmospherics, though that impression may reflect more on the Majestic Theatre's dry, sullen acoustics than on the actual performance. This is music that needs space to breathe.

And this orchestra desperately needs a concert hall.
San Antonio Express-News publish date March 29, 2007

-- Alban Gerhardt was the guest cellist in the concert by the San Antonio Symphony. The concert opened with a piece written by Trinity University composer Timothy Kramer.