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Review: ‘Authentic expression wins the night’ with Kotev’s ‘potent’ rhapsody

The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Principal Symphonic Conductor Rossen Milanov take a bow following the CSO’s “Barber and Bartók” performance Thursday in the Amphitheater, which included the American premiere of composer Angel Kotev’s Rhapsody No. 3, “Fateful.”
Sean Smith / staff photographer
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Principal Symphonic Conductor Rossen Milanov take a bow following the CSO’s “Barber and Bartók” performance Thursday in the Amphitheater, which included the American premiere of composer Angel Kotev’s Rhapsody No. 3, “Fateful.”

The idea that music evolves was once accepted in the Western classical sphere: unison chant developed into multi-voiced counterpoint, which progressed to tonal harmony and chromaticism before branching out to avant-garde techniques such as 12-tone works. Composers who didn’t follow the trends were often viewed as stale, especially those who continued to write tonal music in the 20th century. Thankfully, no single style dominates today. Few contend that one type is inherently better or “improved,” and many once-derided compositions have been revived. Thursday evening’s Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra concert at the Amphitheater, led by its Music Director Rossen Milanov, brought the issue to the fore.

Kotev, left, and Milanov embrace following the CSO’s performance of the composer’s Rhapsody No. 3.
Sean Smith / staff photographer
Kotev, left, and Milanov embrace following the CSO’s performance of the composer’s Rhapsody No. 3.

Today, Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is a revered American composer. But he faced criticism by spurning experimental music in favor of the language of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, etc. He was, in short, out of fashion. That doesn’t mean his music isn’t original. The piece performed Thursday, his Essay No. 1 from 1937, further explores the delicate harmonies and wide spacing of his most famous and idiosyncratic work, “Adagio for Strings.” Milanov cultivated that element in the soft, yet rich motif Barber introduces — appropriately — in the strings. Then the conductor urged it forward through swells of brass and playful woodwind notes.

Born in Bulgaria in 1951, much of Angel Kotev’s output also stems from traditional classical music reinvented in his voice. Many of his early works were out-of-step with the radical trends of the 1970s and ’80s, though the Cold War played a major role. I was not familiar with him prior to the season, but found his symphonic poem, “The Surviving Tetraevangel,” to be a fascinating work and his chamber music compelling. Speaking from the stage, Milanov chided himself for not performing a work by a fellow Bulgarian in his 10 years as CSO music director. But the situation presented itself, nearly inevitably so, in hindsight. Kotev’s daughter, Liana Koteva Kirvan, is a member of the violin section, bringing the composer to the Institution for several years now, including for this concert.

The piece Milanov programmed, Rhapsody No. 3, “Fateful,” in its American premiere, is potent. It opened forebodingly, with the lower strings and bassoons almost creeping onstage, further darkened by bells and trombones. Soon enough, the energy built, giving way to a haunting oboe melody, delivered with a plaintive timbre. Much of the rest of the Rhapsody swung between heavy utterances by the brass with percussion and quieter strains from the violins, harp and woodwinds. Considering the composer named the work, it is not a stretch to interpret it as the time-honored representation of the human struggle against fate. Kotev certainly would be in good company in this endeavor. Eventually, the seesawing gave way to complex music characterizing Bulgarian folk dances and an ending that seemed positive, though not triumphant.

The concert concluded with an example of a composer trying to fit in rather than continue his own path. Béla Bartók’s (1881–1945) The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, expanded from music he wrote in 1919, is a departure from his earlier work with folk music, as well as his classical training. It has always struck me as an overwrought attempt to show he could write in the expressionist style of post-war Europe. Even the subject — thugs who coerce a young girl to entice men, whom they rob — is of the sordid sort popular in the period. The CSO handled its brilliant orchestration, and the clarinetist captured the tawdry seduction with an increasingly tighter tone. But to me, authentic expression won the night.

Andrew Druckenbrod is a former classical music critic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He studied musicology at the University of Minnesota and is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Tags : Angel KotevBarber and BartókChautauqua Symphony OrchestracsoGuest Critic ReviewRossen MilanovSamuel Barber
Andrew Druckenbrod

The author Andrew Druckenbrod