REVIEW: Orchestra Iowa ushers in new season on wings of beauty

By Diana Nollen

CEDAR RAPIDS - Orchestra Iowa captured perfectly the season of renewal and ascension in its “Reflections” weekend concerts.

The classical series events - part of a year showcasing the talents of Iowans - were held Saturday night at Sinclair Auditorium in Cedar Rapids and Sunday afternoon at West High School in Iowa City.

The nearly two-hour concerts featured three diverse works that all evoke a sense of rising to the heavens. Two specifically deal with hope borne on the wings of grief, while the other gives wing to the poetic flight of a lark. Each was magnificent.

While the centerpiece undeniably was Mozart's famous Requiem in D Minor, the first two works were stunning in their own right.

Jeffrey Prater, a music professor at Iowa State University in Ames, was in Saturday's audience to hear his lovely work, “Promise,” performed by the orchestra's strings and principal flautist, Jane Walker.

Prater wrote the 10-minute piece in the spring of 2005, after losing his wife suddenly to a rare brain disorder. The music speaks not only to the emotional stages of grief, but also to finding the hope of life in the midst of sorrow.

“It thrills me to be able to have a performance of this caliber in Cedar Rapids,” he told the audience at the beginning of the concert. “(This piece) is very special to me and it is very special for me to be here tonight.”

“Promise” begins with a flutter of violins and the plunking of cellos, then swelling before dying down for the solo flute's mournful line in its lower register. The flute quietly ascends to a light dance and continues to float high above the strings as they return with a lovely fluid line before the work comes to a quiet close.

 Afterward, the composer was visibly moved.

“It was a wonderful performance,” Prater told The Gazette. “Jane is such a sensitive artist, bringing out all of the color of the flute. The strings were so fine. Blending together, they allowed the flute to do her thing, while they did their thing at the same time.”

Winds, French horn and percussion joined the strings for Ralph Vaughan Williams' beautiful “Lark Ascending,” featuring orchestra concertmaster Takuya Horiuchi. It's always a treat to see him humbly step into the solo spotlight, then unleash his pure talent.

And as we welcome spring and the return of the songbirds, it's most delightful to hear the low drone of the strings under the light, lyrical flight of the solo violin. The strings were so beautifully expressive in the lush passages that are the hallmark of Vaughan Williams' works.

Then came the fireworks, as the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale and four fine vocal soloists joined the orchestra for Mozart's Mass for the Dead. The Requiem is his final and perhaps best work, which actually was finished after his death.

The chorale has never sounded more precise, with crisp entrances and clean cut-offs. Mozart always presents a challenge for singers and instrumentalists, but Maestro Timothy Hankewich feels the music so passionately and expressively that the performers always know exactly where he's going.

The depth and breadth of this Mass is glorious, dripping with all the drama accorded by the text that pleads with God to liberate the souls of the dead, have mercy on them at the final judgment, bring comfort to the mourners, shine eternal light upon the deceased and grant them peace.