Midwest Young Artists Concert Review: Symphony Orchestra with Ethan Bensdorf at Ravinia

Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Allan Dennis, conductor

Ethan Bensdorf, trumpet

by Michael Cameron

            The Midwest Young Artists’ April concerts usually take place at Pick-Staiger Hall at Northwestern University in Evanston, a space with fine acoustics and a convenient location. I have heard many solo and chamber music concerts at Ravinia’s Bennet Gordon Hall, but this was my first exposure to an orchestral concert at the venue. While the students were tightly packed on stage, the intimacy and superb acoustics of the hall allowed the ensemble to shine even more brilliantly than usual.

            These final spring MYA concerts tend to serve as emotional catharses, with heartfelt farewells to the graduating seniors and the traditional distribution of red roses by conductor Dr. Allan Dennis. This segment of the proceedings was especially poignant, as the number of seniors in this year’s class is particularly high.

            Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” from 1910 has proven to be one of the composer’s most durable works, and one of the undisputed masterworks of the string orchestra repertoire. The composer encountered Tallis’ tune while editing the English Hymnal in 1906, and was inspired to fashion a work that included two smaller ensembles in addition to the large, primary group. Often all three groups appear on stage in modern performances, but Dennis wisely choose to place the chamber groups at opposite ends of the balcony for maximum antiphonal effect.

            The Fantasia is filled with passionate outbursts and intimate musings in equal measure, and the superb MYA strings excelled at both. It opens with all three groups united, and later features call-and-response between the two smaller ensembles. Such wide distances between players and conductor can make for perilous unanimity, but the well-rehearsed and fully engaged young players pulled if off without a hitch.

            After Aram Khachaturian, Alexander Arutiunian is considered one of the most important Armenian composers of the 20th century. He finished his formal education at the Moscow Conservatory in 1948 and composed his concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra only two years later. While he had a long and successful career that included numerous prizes for several of his symphonic compositions, the concerto has remained the most popular of his works, and is one of the most performed concertos of its kind of the 20th century.

            Principal trumpet player of the New York Philharmonic Philip Smith wrote that the concerto is now so entrenched in the instrument’s repertory that students often use it as an audition piece at Julliard. “It has a very Gypsy, Armenian kind of sound, beautiful melodies and plenty of exciting rapid-tonguing…” While Smith didn’t make an appearance Sunday, MYA students and parents were thrilled to have the next best thing, the second trumpet player of the Philharmonic, Ethan Bensdorf. The remarkable virtuoso has substantial roots in the area, having earned his Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern and completing a two-year stint in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

            The students were clearly primed and ready to perform with a player of Bensdorf’s caliber, and soloist and orchestra didn’t disappoint. He negotiated a myriad of rapid scales with pinpoint accuracy, no matter the register and dynamic. No doubt the orchestra’s young brass players were inspired to hit the practice rooms with more frequency after their experience this week.

            It was a remarkable coup for wealthy socialite and music lover Jeanette Thurber to obtain the serves of world renowned composer Antonin Dvorak for her fledgling National Conservatory of Music in 1891. Even with other distinctive faculty such as Victor Herbert, the conservatory flourished only for a couple of decades, eventually disappearing in 1928.

            If the school Dvorak lead was short lived, the works he composed while on American soil have achieved immortality, particularly two extended works with explicit references to his adopted homeland, the “American” String Quartet and the Symphony No. 9 (“from the New World”). The composer’s infatuation with the melodies of African and native Americans are palpable in both works, and the New World is widely regarded as the finest symphony conceived on American soil at the time.

            Because of it’s memorable melodic content and easy accessibility for audiences and young musicians, it has become a favorite of youth orchestras. I doubt that few if any of them have the skills and leadership to match this year’s incarnation of the MYA Symphony Orchestra. With an unusually high number of experienced players, the musicians were able to play with the kind of spit and polish expected from professional orchestras, but with a level of energy and enthusiasm more often associated with young players. 

            The lovely opening put the early spotlight on the fine cello section and principal flutist Kathryn Chiodo. The beautiful lyrical tone of clarinetist Theodore Mavrakis and oboist Matthew Harms also shone both in this movement and throughout the symphony. English horn player Alex Vanden Bussche played the opening tune of the Largo with touching grace, and the movement ended with hushed chords in the trombone section and a final muted chord from a fine quartet of double basses.

            Dr. Dennis took Dvorak’s “con fuoco” designation in the finale to heart in a reading that sizzled from start to finish. All of the sections had a chance to shine, but the brass took center stage during the movement’s many climatic bars. Principal trumpet player Nicholas Slaggert and first horn player Nathan Goldin rode above the din with bright, gleaming exclamations. The audience leaped to their feet after the final bars, and the students appeared justly satisfied and energized by their performance.

            Once again the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra proved up to the task in a compelling and moving program of varied works. When Dennis and company embark on their summer tour, I have no doubt that their audiences will be just as fully engaged and delighted as this Highland Park gathering was. 

Contact Midwest Young Artists for summer youth music camp opportunities: (847) 926-9898, www.mya.org, summer.mya.org, or email mya@mya.org. Find MYA on Facebook.com/midwestyoungartists