By Lawrence Toppman
For the last five shining minutes of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) gala Wednesday night, I finally heard the sound I’ve dreamed of through 44 years of CSO concerts: Four to five dozen string players, joyfully producing the huge tone I’ve heard in New York and Chicago. Of course, 18 of them will leave town this week, but still … bliss!
Those 18 belong to Sphinx Virtuosi, a touring chamber orchestra made up entirely of young Black and Latino players. To see them integrated with the CSO brought a visual pleasure as well as an aural one: The Sphinx squad dressed in garments of every color and sat among their more staid cohorts, bobbing and weaving as they encored with Arturo Márquez’ “Conga del Fuego Nuevo” (“Conga of New Fire”). Even former music director Christopher Warren-Green, now conductor laureate, did a little hip-swinging on the podium.
The CSO and Sphinx alternated for the first four selections in the 65-minute gala, then teamed for the last three. The program held only one familiar piece, the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” and it was the least interesting: rushed, drained of wit, giving off a “we’ve played this too often” vibe.
The CSO’s other lone effort, another opera overture, fared slightly better, because hardly anyone knows the blandly jaunty music from Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha.” You had to grin when a percussionist slammed down a lid on what I expect was an instrument box, perhaps echoing the moment in the opera when the title character’s suitor, masquerading as the devil, scares off two conjurors.
Composer Levi Taylor came to the Belk to hear the world premiere of his “Daydreaming (A Fantasy on Scott Joplin)” and took well-deserved applause after Sphinx’s vivid performance of his buoyant meditation on Joplin tunes.
Another world premiere, Curtis Stewart’s “Drill,” was supposed to provide a showcase for percussionist Britton-René Collins but mysteriously disappeared from the program. (CSO officials couldn’t tell me why.) I didn’t mind, as Sphinx replaced it with one of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s four “Novelletten.” I don’t tire of his music, and this elegant, Dvorakian waltz left me smiling.
Then came the pairing of the two ensembles. They began with the “Summer” movement of Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” in which the composer intersperses bits of Vivaldi’s famous work with his tango-style musings. Adé Williams played the furious baroque sections and slithery modern solos with equal flair.
Film fans know Michael Abels as the composer on Jordan Peele’s movies, and opera fans recall his remarkable collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens on “Omar.” His one-movement “Delights and Dances” combines a string quartet with an orchestra in the manner of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” But where Vaughan Williams integrated the two thoroughly, Abels uses the string orchestra as a big guitar, mostly plucking accompaniment, and leaves the heavy lifting – much of it jazz – or blues-based – to the cellist and first violinist.
Marquez’ conga capped the program so infectiously that the violinists and winds rose to their feet to play, and trumpeter Alex Wilborn blasted solos as merrily as if he’d been transported to a plaza in Mexico City. Even the Great Sphinx of Giza would have risen from the sand to dance.
P.S. This concert won’t be repeated, but you can hear Sphinx Virtuosi Friday at 7 p.m. at Charlotte Preparatory School, playing a concert to benefit victims of Hurricane Helene. (The CSO is also donating some of the proceeds of its gala to that cause.) Friday’s concert is free, but you’ll need to register in advance and bring a donation of goods listed on the website.
Pictured: Sphinx Virtuosi by Scott Jackson.