Kleinhans Music Hall was packed Saturday night, and listeners kept standing up to cheer. The night began with a spontaneous ovation for JoAnn Falletta, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director, who has just signed a contract for another five years.
After that came BPO principal flutist Christine Bailey Davis, playing Lowell Liebermann’s lovely flute concerto. The last movement was so stunning and ended with such a bang that, again, people stood and cheered.
The evening ended with tumultuous appreciation for Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. People were cheering and hollering.
Now, that was a concert!
The first half — which was repeated Sunday—was all lesser-known music, making the enthusiasm extra special. Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Concert Romanesc” is a likable piece brimming with changing textures, original orchestral sound effects and Romanian folk songs. Tunes were tossed around among the piccolo, bassoon and clarinet. Concertmaster Michael Ludwig got to play the country fiddler and seemed to enjoy it.
Just 12 minutes long, the piece flies past. It is that engrossing, right from its stately start. There were chirps, buzzes and horn calls. Yet, this is not the avant-garde music associated with Ligeti. It’s a lot of fun and went over big.
The Liebermann flute concerto, written in 1961, was also a charmer. Bailey Davis did not have to “sell” it the way performers often have to sell lesser-known, latter-day works. All she had to do was ride the waves of the piece, which cannot be as easy as it sounds.
Bailey Davis maintained a calm, dreamy tone, as if letting the music play itself. It cannot have been easy. There are long, fluttery interludes that allow her scarcely time to breathe.
Also required is the utmost coordination with the orchestra. Often throughout the piece, the other musicians echoed Bailey Davis’ scampering lines, or she echoed theirs. The textures were witty and absorbing. A piano added sparks. There were flashes of brass.
The slow movement could especially melt hearts. It begins with a calm melody over a soft pulse, and there is an enchanting interlude in which the flute leads, and then the other woodwinds take up the tune, like birdsong. Beautiful.
The concluding Presto could be described as perpetual motion. It was clearly a challenge, and Bailey Davis was up to it.
The crowd went crazy. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony never grows old. It was endlessly absorbing to watch. The orchestra was unusually arrayed— the cellos and basses to the left, behind the violins. Sometimes the winds or brass came from unexpected angles.
Falletta and the orchestra did what they do best in such “big music” — they took it in an unhurried, expressive style. They let it breathe. The transitions were shaped with care and the brooding Russian melodies had grace and buoyancy.
Things I will remember: the whispers on the cellos and basses at the end of the first movement, and later, the big sweeps of power from the brass, like a chorale. The final coda was deftly finessed, building to an ending that brought the house down.
Concert Review
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Classics Concert. Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon in Kleinhans Music Hall.
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