By Daniel Buckwalter
Sometimes the old becomes new again, as I was reminded at a recent Oregon Bach Festival concert.
The standard bearer for re-imagining music classics on July 9 was Conrad Tao, a 32-year-old, well-traveled and well-respected pianist and composer. He electrified a large audience with a dynamic and muscular performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fantasia, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and, for an encore, and Harold Arlen’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, all to a deeply appreciative audience in the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall.
Along with the OBF Modern Orchestra (under the expressive leadership of conductor Gemma New), this was OBF’s final concert this season as it celebrated, and reflected on, America at 250 years old. If Bach seemed like an odd choice for a celebration of this country, it worked because of the brash, take-no-prisoners approach that Illinois native Tao brought to the stage.
Fantasia and Rhapsody in Blue are already sprawling, emotional pieces of art, but Tao added an explosiveness that was gripping from the opening notes of each work. He had the audience’s full attention from the get-go.
And, as with any first-rate pianist, he is as much fun to watch as he is exciting to listen to. He attacks the keyboard with ferocity, clearly up to the task of demanding scores. The only time he had to sit and wait was for the clarinet introduction in Rhapsody in Blue. Otherwise, he was in command of the stage, not just the Steinway. It was a treat for the audience to soak this in.
Following intermission, it was time to reflect on this country’s history, specifically race relations, but also of this nation’s jewels, its 63 officially designated national parks.
Anton Armstrong, the director of OBF’s Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy, led the orchestra, the OBF Chorus and the University of Oregon’s Chamber Choir, through the touching, seven-movement piece composed by Margaret Bonds, titled Credo.
Bonds finished the piece in 1965, two years after both the tragic church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and the March in Washington for Jobs and Freedom. More than 60 years later, Armstrong noted to the audience, the music and the text still resonate, perhaps now more than ever.
The text is powerful because Bonds drew from the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, who published Credo in 1904. Bonds set to music Du Bois’ rejoicing in his many beliefs: in God, the Negro race, the pride of race, the existence of the devil and his angels, as well as belief in the prince of peace (and that war is murder), in liberty and in patience.
Voiced by soprano Nicole Joseph and baritone Carl DuPont, Credo is a full-throated affirmation of Black culture, the perfect antidote to the vile hate that spews from too many among us.
The program’s title was American Tapestry, and, well, what is more American than Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (an abridged suite for full orchestra) and The Promise of Living, with both choral ensembles?
Throw in the wonderful archival photography of many of the 63 officially designated national parks — all curated by photographer and multimedia artist Nicholas Bardonnay — and the marvel of this country’s vast landscape was a fitting way to end the America 250 series.
