Famed cellist Joshua Roman traveled to MemAud on Monday with Columbus-based ProMusica Chamber Orchestra for the Athens debut of his new concerto “Awakening.”
Audiences were brought to their feet by the spring opening of the Performing Arts and Concerts Series, which featured the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and its special guest, cellist Joshua Roman who debuted his new concerto, “Awakening,” alongside other well-known classics.
The ProMusica Chamber Orchestra began the concert with Francesco Geminiani’s “Concerto Grosso in D Minor,” a violin-oriented piece that showcased the orchestra’s string prowess. Violin concertmaster Katherine McLin was instantly set apart from the rest of the orchestra through her skillful navigations of beautiful progressions. At times, every other violin would stop completely in order to emphasize her solos, though no gap was left in the orchestra’s sound.
The chamber orchestra constructed a lighter and more delicate blend of each instrument’s individual voice, rather than the overbearing wall of sound and layers of instruments that is typical of an orchestra.
The pinnacle of the show was the premiere of a new concerto from famed composer and ProMusica’s guest cellist, Joshua Roman.
Before the Athens premiere of Roman’s new concerto, a pre-premiere interview was conducted onstage between Roman and ProMusica’s music director David Danzmayr.
Roman spoke about how his performance techniques change when he is performing his own written work.
“When I’m playing Bach, I can’t see inside his head, so I don’t mess with it,” Roman said on stage. “But when I’m playing my own work, I know what I can play with.”
The concerto began in a dramatic whisper, only to be interrupted by individual plucks of Roman’s cello. Meanwhile in the background, the violin section created a natural echo effect using layers of strings.
“It is a piece that makes the heart feel heavy at first,” Van Williams, an undecided freshman, said. “The sound keeps getting denser and denser as if the world is coming down.”
Roman’s cello was the individual in the piece and he was separated from the rest of the orchestra, sharing Danzmayr’s riser and wearing a maroon suede suit — a bold stand out from the uniform black wardrobe of the group.
Slowly, the orchestra built tension, until in an instant, everything fell away and the audience was left with only the sorrowful cello, which then gave up. The audience was left in silence.
“There’s got to be a moment where the cello just gives up, and then everything clicks,” Roman said in an email prior to the show.
The other instruments came back in mourning of the cello’s absence. Yet, the cello’s silence allowed it to have a revitalized awakening, as cymbals began to crash and violin bows rose uniformly together like a marching brigade.
“The concerto was absolutely amazing,” Brandon Brooks, a junior studying global studies, said. “It was open enough for understanding, and the introduction at the beginning allowed you to completely comprehend the movement changes.”
The other spectacle of the evening was Danzmayr’s conducting. It was as if the music was emanating from Danzmayr himself — his face, motions and even his posture aligned perfectly with the music. His emphatic motions often nearly swung him off his conducting platform.
The passionate bolts of Danzmayr’s arms personified the driving melody of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, the final piece of the evening.
“The evening was exciting, deep and just amazing,” Morty Ross, a resident of Jackson, Ohio, said. “If they have more stuff as good as this, I’ll be back.”
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