Photos underline orchestra's music

The American Civil War was the first armed conflict in history to be thoroughly documented in photographs.

This weekend, the Omaha Symphony is giving a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” that takes full advantage of that war’s rich visual history. The concert features still photographs from the war that are projected onto a giant screen above the stage. These old black-and-white pictures, which photochoreographer James Westwater has sensitively arranged to accompany the music, gave Copland’s stirring score even deeper meaning.

Certainly, the photos shown at Friday night’s opening concert at the Holland Performing Arts Center took an unflinching and unsugarcoated look at America’s bloodiest conflict. Photos projected during the score’s opening majestic measures showed American cities that had been pulverized into rubble. Mutilated bodies of soldiers covered open fields of battle.

Westwater reminds us what all that carnage was about with his selection of deeply moving photos of slaves. Images of Abraham Lincoln set the stage for the 16th president’s words –– Copland’s piece includes a narrator reading from Lincoln’s letters and speeches.

Music director Thomas Wilkins conducted this music with great sensitivity and flexibility, an interpretation that allowed Copland’s phrases to flow naturally while still keeping in sync with the photos.

The narrator, the Rev. John P. Schlegel, president of Creighton University, was less satisfying, though flaws in performance were not entirely his fault. The Holland Center’s public address system didn’t seem to be functioning properly, since Schlegel’s words were unclear and muddy. Schlegel didn’t help matters by delivering Lincoln’s words in a droll, matter-of-fact manner.

Friday’s concert opened with Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” that was also played to Westwater’s photochoreography. This time, the music was played to pictures of unforgettably beautiful American landscapes and monuments. The only problem here was encountered by people in the front rows, who had to strain their necks to see the giant screen.

Leonard Bernstein is most often represented in concerts by his ever-popular “Candide” Overture. This weekend, the Omaha Symphony is playing Bernstein’s Suite for Orchestra from “Candide,” which includes numerous selections from the musical.

The score was Bernstein’s love letter to European music –– you hear Strauss-like waltzes and Brahms-like serenades along with one or two hot Spanish dance numbers. Wilkins and the symphony gave a sparkling rendition of the score.

Copland’s monumental Symphony No. 3 is arguably the greatest orchestral piece ever written by an American, and yet it is almost never played. The reason, probably, is because it is incredibly difficult, and most orchestras just don’t have time to rehearse it properly.

That said, the Omaha Symphony and Wilkins were up to the challenge, since their performance Friday was the best I’ve ever heard from this group.

There was beautiful flow in the arching first movement and unrelenting energy in the boisterous scherzo that followed. The slow third movement is some of the most emotionally wrenching music Copland ever wrote, and the orchestra’s interpretation was utterly transporting.

The finale, which quotes music from “Fanfare for the Common Man,” features some of the most daunting contrapuntal writing in symphonic repertoire. It’s controlled chaos, with all sections in the orchestras simultaneously playing different melodies in different rhythms. Wilkins and the symphony played it all with polished perfection. Now that’s the mark of a virtuoso orchestra.

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com

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