Jazz, swing, blues, ragtime, spirituals, gospel and big band music fused with a classical violin concerto Sunday when the Bangor Symphony Orchestra soared in a rousing performance of Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto in D Major with guest soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins.
Music Director and Conductor Lucas Richman and the musicians showed an appreciative audience that the orchestra is as adept at the three Bs — Bach, Beethoven and Brahms — as it is at 21st century music. Marsalis’ concerto is big, bold and boisterous and the symphony practically blew the roof off the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono in bringing it to life. Musicians, usually a serious group, smiled as they played.
Marsalis wrote the concerto in 2015 for Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who is now his wife. Hall-Tompkins has played the piece more than 20 times with different orchestras. She has an intimate relationship with it and that showed in her passionate and expressive performance.
Richman met Hall-Tompkins two years ago when he conducted the score for Spike Lee’s film “Highest 2 Lowest.” Hall-Tompkins was a violinist in the orchestra. The conductor invited her to play Marsalis’ concerto and she immediately agreed to come, Richman said in opening remarks before taking up the baton. It was her first visit to Maine.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Hall-Tompkins earned her bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and her master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where she now teaches. She has been called a “trailblazing and innovative” soloist and that was evident Sunday.
Richman opened the concert, titled “Symphonic Glory,” with “Festive Overture,” written in 1944 by William Grant Still, known as the dean of African-American composers. This is a joyous piece similar in tone to Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” which the BSO will perform at its April concert.
The program notes described Still as ”a prolific composer whose output includes five symphonies, numerous ballets and operas, and hundreds of smaller works.” He also broke racial barriers when “in 1936 he became the first Black conductor to lead a major U.S. orchestra when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.”
The concert concluded with Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major. He composed it in 1889, three years before he came to the United States to direct the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. It radiates “warmth, optimism and pastoral charm,” according to the program notes.
It felt like a bit of a cool down after the exuberance of the concerto but the tone was equally joyous. The Marsalis piece seems to be a celebration of community and urban life while Dvorak’s symphony celebrates life in the countryside with bird call motifs and rustic dances. The symphony sent concertgoers out into the cold, warm and content surrounded by the glorious sounds of this unforgettable musical experience.
“Symphonic Glory” may be streamed Friday through Dec. 5 at watch.bangorsymphony.org. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will perform Dec. 7 with the touring company of Meredith Wilson’s “Miracle on 34th Street” at the Cross Insurance Center and on Dec. 20 and 21 will perform “The Nutcracker” with the Robinson Ballet at the Collins Center for the Arts.
