State symphony brings the work of Ravel and Dvorak to CFCC's Wilson Center Feb. 8.
Sensuality and romance (barely) clothed in the garb of musical logic promise to make for a memorable experience when the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra performs works by Antonin Dvorak and Maurice Ravel Thursday evening at Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center.
The long, wistful melodic lines of Dvorak’s charm-filled "Serenade for Strings" will open the concert, featuring the NCSO’s string sonorities exclusively. The remainder of the program is given to the depth and breadth and height of passion as captured in Ravel’s complete “Daphnis and Chloe” ballet.
The orchestra is the star in “Daphnis and Chloe” -- the whole orchestra -- fully integrated with Longus’ 2nd-century Greek pastoral drama replete with shepherds, satyrs, nymphs, pirate abduction, a daring rescue and general rejoicing. A beautiful example of this integrated orchestration comes when Chloe makes a flute to cheer Daphnis in the last act of the ballet.
Playing Chloe’s solo for the NCSO will be its principal flutist, Anne Laney, one of the 66 full-time members of the orchestra. Speaking from her home in Cary, she said that Chloe’s solo is one every aspiring flutist must learn.
“When you're taking orchestral auditions, which young people do generally right out of conservatory and that sort of thing, 'Daphnis and Chloe' and 'Prelude to the Afternoon of the Fawn' by Debussy are the two big French solos, big deal," Laney said. "As far as impressing them with your sound, it's 'Afternoon of the Fawn' and 'Daphnis and Chloe.'”
Laney cited Ravel’s consummate skill in using all of the orchestra’s potential to communicate the emotion and action of the story, even to the extent of adding an alto flute and doubling the piccolo in certain passages, sometimes in direct imitation of instruments like panpipes, often to abet an atmosphere of desire and desperation.
Playing it can be a challenge.
“It's 55 minutes long but the flute solo doesn't come until about 42 minutes in or something like that," Laney said. "By the time the flute solo comes, you're exhausted."
The story of the ballet rests on the friendship turned to love between the foundlings Daphnis and Chloe, raised by shepherds and goatherds on an island. Chloe is kidnapped by pirates, spurring Daphnis to ask the god Pan for help rescuing her. The pirates force Chloe to dance, but then Pan arrives, terrifying the pirates and enabling Chloe’s rescue. The ballet concludes with the safe return of Chloe to Daphnis, flinging themselves into one another’s arms.
“There's a lot of very evocative, very nuanced, sensitive little flute things, which take a lot out of you," Laney said. "By the time the flute solo comes along, I turn the page and see the solo and go, ‘Ugh!’ I've got to pull some energy out of somewhere to be able to get through this. Because we focus on the solo but in fact it's, as I say, about three quarters of the way through the ballet. So it's an endurance test.”
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