Modus Operandi Orchestra presents Three Great Romantics in Review
Modus Operandi Orchestra, Justin Bischof, conductor
Chloé Kiffer, violin soloist
Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center, New York, NY
November 30, 2023
This week an exciting concert took place as the Modus Operandi Orchestra (MOO) presented “Three Great
Romantics: An Evening of Brahms, Coleridge-Taylor, and Mendelssohn” at Merkin Hall. In a program that included Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, there was already plenty of inducement to attend, but its rarest offering was the less well-known Violin Concerto by British-Sierra Leonean composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). The Modus Operandi Orchestra concerts have a history of interesting programming, and this was no exception.
The works themselves seemed simpatico sharing this program. Brahms himself famously admired Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (also called “Fingal’s Cave”), and, though his Symphony No. 1 is of course completely different, both exude a feeling of spaciousness in their noble lines. The Hebrides Overture swept the listener up in its inspired waves of sound, setting the tone for the evening. Though the size of Merkin Hall places the listener so close to the “action” that the awareness of each detail sometimes hindered the ideal blend, the details themselves were quite polished. The Modus Operandi Orchestra is made up of fine players, many, we are told, from the Manhattan School of Music, of which the conductor is an alumnus. Together they captured the atmosphere of this evocative favorite. Occasionally the brass section was a bit overpowering for the space, but with the orchestra’s vibrant spirit, such reservations tend to diminish. Overall, Maestro Bischof showed that he has a clear conception of the music and the skill to make his conception a reality.
As for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose music has been enjoying some rediscovery in recent years, he fit into this group of composers in several ways (aside from being counted among the “Great Romantics” as the program title states). For one thing, Coleridge-Taylor had stated his desire to incorporate folk elements into his writing somewhat as Brahms had done (along with Dvorak and Grieg), and he did so in a similarly stylized manner. Though Coleridge-Taylor was, as the program notes mentioned, sometimes called an “African Mahler” (and though others more aptly called him an “African Dvořák” due to this folk aspect), he can ultimately be appreciated for his own distinctive voice and compositional style, despite his having only lived to the age of 37. The Violin Concerto is a good example of that voice. Maestro Bischof announced that, since the concerto’s premiere in 1912 in New York, his research has turned up no other complete New York performances of it with orchestra until this concert, but one trusts that there will be more, as it is a worthy work.
For the concerto, the soloist was Chloé Kiffer, who has been championing the piece and had returned recently from playing it in Texas, we were told, shortly before this Merkin Hall performance. One needed only a few measures to see what an excellent violinist she is, and she delivered the work with virtuosity and a great deal of panache. It was an exciting evening for all of us who had never heard the entire piece live. Still, this listener was left afterwards trying to figure out what exactly it was that felt missing, and the word that kept coming to mind was “inevitability.” While it may be unfair to compare recorded performances with live, I must admit to becoming fond recently of a recorded performance of Tasmin Little playing the entire concerto with the BBC Philharmonic from 2015 – and perhaps still more partial recently to a performance of the first movement by Njioma Chinyere Grevious, with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra. What these recorded performances have, to help persuade a listener of the piece’s worth, is a slightly greater level of abandon to some of the work’s idiosyncrasies. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor created a mercurial and rhapsodic work here, one with tempo changes and dynamic extremes every few moments, and surrendering oneself to the inner logic of these, almost as if improvising it oneself (as opposed to imposing logic from without) helps its structure to feel organic. That may require a bit more rehearsal time than the average orchestra has with their soloist, but it would probably be worth it.
After intermission, we heard a bracing rendition of Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, a piece that probably gets described as overplayed more often than it actually is played – from the paradoxical category of “works so overdone that they start to be ignored.” Kudos to the Modus Operandi Orchestra for programming it and for giving it such an energetic ride. The blend and balance were excellent, and what appealed to this listener especially were the many moments of expansiveness and warmth, achieved with no loss of precision. Standing out was the first movement, which had a cohesion that may relate to the fact that Maestro Bischof conducted it from memory. The last movement, with its famous C major theme in the Allegro non troppo, was conveyed with exalted spirit.
As the pursuit of the new and different dominates programming these days, it is good to see musical leaders who remember that there is a new generation coming up that may never have heard some of the core masterpieces of the classical canon. This Brahms deserves to be known by all (despite a prominent New York paper – to remain nameless – publishing the remark some years ago that there were “too many” Brahms Symphonies” one season – ingrates!). On this occasion, one couldn’t help noticing that there were some young children in the audience, a heartening sight. With Maestro Bischof’s penchant for delivering the classics with entertaining “relatable” banter, some dedicated children’s programs might be something to consider if they haven’t done some already.
