On Sunday, August 16, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music closed its 53rd season with two duplicate concerts at the Mission San Juan Bautista. Under the baton of the highly energetic Director Marin Alsop, the all-star international orchestra performed Impact (2013, West Coast Premiere) by Charles Halka; Angeles de llama y hielo (Angels of Flame and Ice) (1994, rev. 2015) by Ana Lara; Supplica (2014) by Christopher Rouse and Epiclesis (1993, rev. 1998) by James MacMillan with trumpet soloist Tine Thing Helseth.
Halka’s composition “Impact” centered its well-designed textural energy on orchestrated glissandi ending with bursts of sound emphasizing acceleration and dynamics. Impact utilized the lower register trombone, bass drum and double bass and reversing dynamics from “piano” to “forte” and vice-versa. The work was well received by the audience!
Ana Lara’s “Angels of Flame and Ice” four sections are influenced by four poems by Mexican poet Francisco Serrano. The work highlighted the difference between static and kinetic sound with static sound masses using the illusion of movement, spinning but in dynamic rotation without advancing in a melodic line. Angels of Flame and Ice was first composed in 1994 and revised in 2015. The dark, somber moments produced by the brass and double basses were effective. In the third section Angels of Light, the fluttering effect of the flute and bassoon entry gave the linear movement necessary to give flight to the work. A well performed work by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.
Christopher Rouse is one of the finest contemporary composers. His work “Supplica” from the Latin, a petitioning, in the words of Rouse, “possesses a personal meaning.” The work began quietly with a subtle string texture before it orbited around Rouse’s world of creative imagination. Effective pizzicati by the double bass and harp punctuated the solemn sounds. The contemplative, soul-searching effect seemed appropriate then interrupted by the intense brass entry. The work settled into a peaceful atmosphere in which rich, chordal dissonance dissolved into consonance accompanied by a delicate harp that rode on the crest of the orchestral sound. Well done and well appreciated by the audience!
“Epiclesis” was the third work on the program with religious overtones with Angels of Flame and Ice and Supplica the first two fitting the venue, Mission San Juan Bautista. Epiclesis is a single movement concerto for trumpet and sizable orchestra. Epiclesis translates into invocation during the Eucharistic section of the Mass. The flutter tongue solo trumpet opening against an airy, serene backdrop suddenly exploding into a huge sound mass. Moments of brash, chaotic textures emphasized by metal thunder, brass at its highest register filled the Mission and most likely the lovely rolling hills outside. Trumpets positioned to the sides half way into the Mission created a triangular trumpet call and response that ended with soloist Helseth slowly walking down the center aisle and out of the main doors of the Mission and as she ended her exit note, the door slammed causing the audience and Director Alsop to turn and smile.
This was indeed a superb concert and venue that climaxed the 2015 season. A well-deserved long lasing applause was given to the all-star orchestra for a wonderful, artistic experience!