Concert review: Asheville Symphony Orchestra + Ana Vidović at First Baptist Church
As a cellist for more than 20 years, it was with a mix of admiration and envy that I watched Ana Vidović play her second encore at the First Baptist Church of Asheville on March 18. The Croatian-born guitarist was taking one of my instrument’s signature pieces — the Prelude to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major — and making an elegant case that it should have been composed for hers instead.
Vidović’s phrasing mirrored the freely lyrical flow of the best cello interpretations. But the warm resonance of her guitar’s lower strings hung sustained beneath the melody, clearly outlining the harmonic motion that Bach could only imply for the single-voiced cello. When those notes dwindled away, her silence became one with the hush of the audience.
The sold-out Asheville Symphony Orchestra crowd promptly rose in another standing ovation for Vidović, the concert’s featured artist. The first had come after her masterful performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, the main event of an ASO program titled “Guitarra Española.” The concerto, written in 1939, is considered a cornerstone of the classical guitar repertoire and evokes the spirit of a royal palace in what is now Madrid.
The soloist emerged onstage in a flashy, floor-length dress of metallic gold and wasted no time establishing a lively tempo in the Spanish showpiece’s first movement. Yet her rapid-fire runs retained a crystalline clarity, as if each note was a single stone still visible beneath a rushing stream. The ASO’s flutes kept up nicely to contribute extra color and volume beneath the guitar.
In the more meditative second movement, conductor Darko Butorac showed admirable restraint as he shaped string decrescendos across long melodic phrases. Vidović responded in kind, translating the motion of the whole orchestra into the different registers of her guitar. But she was equally able to take the lead and strike powerful solo figures, as evidenced in the piece’s vibrant finale. Never did her precise attack feel harsh, even as she strove to match the ensemble at full steam.
The concerto had been prefaced by “Coquetos,” a selection from 2001’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout by Peruvian-American composer Gabriela Lena Frank. It was an apt programming choice: another string-rich piece tied to a place with Spanish roots. Strong pizzicato work from the cellos and basses almost prefigured the sound of the guitar to come, while the violas bulked out a rich chordal texture.
Following intermission, the ASO string section returned to play Aleksandra Vrebalov’s “Gratitude” from The Sea Ranch Songs, which was composed in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of a planned community in California. Butorac did a fine job sculpting the structural flow of the piece, and the churn of the lower strings kept up plenty of energy. Yet I felt myself missing a certain romanticism in the violin melodies.
The full orchestra reunited for the evening’s final selection, Ludvig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. The piece didn’t quite seem to connect thematically with the first three — a peak-classical stalwart from a German composer on a program of more contemporary work with Hispanic influences. But that was a minor quibble given the quality of the performance itself.
Butorac launched with confidence into the symphony’s unusual introduction, briskly tackling a series of chord sequences that misled the listener before finally landing in the home key of C major. He proceeded to conduct a bright thematic conversation between strings and winds, punctuated by crisp strokes of timpani. The tempo was a touch faster than other renditions I’ve heard, but it brought out the lightness and humor of a Beethoven who, at this point in his compositional life, was still heavily inspired by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
That approach to tempo stayed consistent through the rest of the piece, especially in a propulsive third-movement menuetto. The finale brought in punchy horn statements, tight ensemble playing, and the sheer joy of a big Beethoven finish. The crowd didn’t miss a beat in rising to its feet once more as soon as the last chord had sounded.
(Photo courtesy of Ana Vidović)
