Stream the Eugene Symphony’s final “Soundwaves” concert of the pandemic season online through June 11

By Daniel Buckwalter
(#CommonManAtTheSympony)

We’ve all experienced loss during this pandemic, even if it’s something as simple and elegant as community, however you define it.

I am reminded of that constantly, especially during the monthly Soundwaves series with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, those virtual performances with Francesco Lecce-Chong conducting not the full orchestra but a reduced number of players, and not before a packed house, but in the vast and empty Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center.

Still, the Soundwaves series has served us who are starved for rich symphonic music and have missed the Thursday nights at the Hult Center. I have missed the community. And the final installment of the series — Soundwaves VI, which premiered Thursday — offers some happy surprises.

For starters, in addition to the stalwart strings section, there are percussionists, two people playing xylophones!

And there are four horn players and four wind players! (Forgive my exclamation points!) For obvious COVID-related reasons, we haven’t seen brass or wind ensembles except, perhaps, outdoors.

Even for this performance, the brass and wind players — a trumpeter, trombonist, French hornist and a tuba player teaming with a flutist, oboist, bassoonist and a clarinetist — individually taped their contributions to composer Terry Riley’s minimalist In C a month prior to the string instrumentalist coming together. They were expertly woven into the symphony’s production.

Also interspersed in Riley’s piece are digital images of Eugene’s handsome murals, many of which show the strength, vitality and honor of people from varied cultures who have called Eugene home.
Combine that with both the repetitive, staccato-like nature of In C and its sometimes soaring grace, and I felt the intense need to take a walk or bike ride through town. It is my favorite piece of this installment.

The Eugene Symphony also performs two graceful pieces from two Chinese American composers: Zhou Tian’s Nocturne and Chen Yi’s Shuo.

It ends this production of Soundwaves VI — and the 2021 season — with Second Construction by John Cage, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

The latter premiered in 1910 and is a tribute from a great 20th-century English composer to a great 16-th century English composer. The piece is considered one of Williams’ most successful orchestral works.

Like all arts organizations — not to mention the world — the Eugene Symphony Orchestra was caught off-guard by the pandemic, and it had to scramble to achieve the success it did with the Soundwaves series.

Heartfelt thanks to the Eugene Symphony, and I so much look forward to experiencing “community” again at the Hult Center in the fall.

Symphony Soundwaves VI

When: Through June 11 at 9 a.m.

Where: eugenesymphony.org/watch

Admission: Free

Program: