Muffit and the LSO: Getting to Know Each Other

January 27th was the third concert that Timothy Muffitt has led the Lansing Symphony as their Music Director, and it's clear that they are getting to know each other.

For each concert, Muffitt seems to be stretching the ensemble to embrace new repertoire and to feel comfortable with more difficult music.

For this concert. Muffit programmed three pieces - all very different from each other. But put together in one concert, Faure (French), Prokofiev (Russian) and Schubert (Viennese) made for a wonderful mix of music.

The contrast of the music was not only because of the nationality of the composers. The first two works, "Suite from Pelleas et Melisande" and "Suite from Lieutanant Kije" were relatively short (18-20 minutes) and had many short movements: four for the Faure and five for the Prokofiev. The music was theatrical, programmatic and filled the stage with many instruments and sounds.

With all those short, snappy movements, it's almost like Muffitt was preparing his audience to sit through the grandiosely long (55 minutes) Schubert Great C Major symphony with a limited romantic orchestra (more about that later).

The Faure was lush and sensuous, with lovely solos by flutist Richard Sherman in the second movement and bassoonist Michael Kroth in the third. These extended solos are some of the most famous in the repertoire and they were both superb. Muffitt brought a ravishing sound from his strings, which has been developing throughout his short tenure with the LSO.

The joyful Prokofiev uses the orchestral pallet to it fullest. The stage is filled with a full orchestra plus tenor saxophone, off-stage trumpet, piano, celesta, harp and a plethora of percussion instruments. It all made for music that sounded like a Russian celebration. The star of Kije was the consistantly beautiful trumpet playing by Richard Illman. I think Muffitt had him take three bows.

This was a particularly difficult concert, and there were moments in both of these works in which inner details of the ensemble were missing - low string sections, woodwind clarity and the correct balances between woodwinds and strings. However the overall impression of these two works was pure enjoyment.

But after all this delightful music, the orchestra then performed on the great symphonies ever written, the Schubert C major, No 9. Some people feel that the piece is too long and too repetitive, but it has always been very dear to my heart. For sure, it is one of the most difficult violin parts ever written. After the treacherous fourth movement, many violinists were seen stretching and getting their hands out of a cramping position.

All in all, Muffitt and his new ensemble played this masterpiece with the respect it deserved. It has been many years since the LSO played the Schubert, and it was clearly not "under their fingers". Muffittt was working hard, pulling the music out of them. But the orchestra response to his urgings was positive. Musicians and conductor appear to have great respect for each other.

Although the Schubert is a big sprawling work, it is interesting that the instrumentation is quite small - almost like an orchestra of the classical era. The orchestra included only a timpanist in the percussion section, a section of two horns (usually four), 2 trumpets - but a full section of three trombones. And the trombones played a significant role with beautiful chords backing up the strings and woodwinds.

After the long and gracious first movement, Muffitt changed the mood totally with a second movement that was elegant, crisp with terrific oboe solos by Jan Eberle. The third movement was the weakest with an uneven tempo and missing harmonies in the brass, overbalanced by other instruments.

By the fourth movement, it was clear that the orchestra was waning. But they came up to the challenge. The repetitive violin vamp was effective, clean and light. Muffitt paid close attention to the cellos and they responded with big luscious chords.

The audience gave the Lansing musicians warm applause, appreciating the variety of music they heard that night and the new energy the orchestra is producing.