Majkut leads maracas, Beethoven, mix in colorful concert

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Martin Majkut is one of the candidates in the Rogue Valley Symphony's yearlong search for a conductor and music director.Photo courtesy of RVSO

Here's something you don't see every day. A full-throated symphony orchestra accompanying ... a guy playing the maracas? Yes. Shaking it up like the rhythm section in an old Carmen Miranda movie, or the soundtrack for a scene with something dangerous in a noir thriller, maybe a lurking snake.

It was the third piece in the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra's concert Friday night at Southern Oregon University's Music Recital Hall, Ricardo Lorenz's "Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Orchestra," under the baton of Martin Majkut.

Majkut, a native of Slovakia, where he often performs, and an assistant conductor of the Arizona Opera, is the second in a roster of guest conductors vying for the job of conductor/music director with the RVSO. Three conductors will follow in what the RVSO is calling The Year of the Search. One will be offered the job.

Majkut brought a sure hand and a unassuming demeanor to the evening, which sandwiched Lorenz's little oddity between much more traditional bookends, Mozart's Symphony No. 20 in D, K. 133, to open, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, to close.

The Mozart symphony, written when the composer was all of 16, was full of charm and elegance if not the sublime depths of the mature Mozart. The piece is scored for a smaller orchestra, and many of the RVSO's players were not on the stage for it.

The first movement began with those three signature hammer-blow chords and became a sparkling gambol in sonata-allegro form in which the original theme returned only near the end of the movement. In the delicate second movement violins and a flute took over, and the basses played pizzicato. The third movement was a minuet dominated by strings and an oboe. The finale was a long, energetic dance. Mozart did not indicate a tempo, but Majkut's interpretation was a joyful allegro.

For the evening's second piece, "Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra," by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Majkut welcomed guest artist and saxophonist Rhett Bender, who performs all over the world when he's not teaching music at SOU.

Without going into the whole business about a "lost" version of the piece being a step above the version saxophonists have always played, let's just say that the work is lyrical and a bit exotic and driven by strong rhythms. Villa-Lobos rambled as a youngster in the hinterlands of Brazil and learned from folk musicians and players at Carnaval and the streets of Rio, and all those influences are present in the piece, although it is by no means folk music.

Bender played with a mix of passion and ease, bouncing lively, sometimes melancholy cascades of notes around the room until, rather suddenly, the piece ended.

Then there was "Pataruco," which is Venezuelan slang for "cocky guy." The man playing the maracas was Terry Longshore who, like Bender, has combined teaching music at SOU while earning an international reputation as a percussionist. Longshore played the maracas really well, I guess. And there's something to be said for expanding the repertoire.

Still, it was strange. Just when you were marveling at the maraca mojo, something would shift and you'd be seeing the emperor with no clothes. You gotta be kidding with the maracas.

The background symphonic music — Lorenz, who teaches at Michigan State, calls it a "sonic quilt" — was probably more intriguing than the percussion.

Majkut said before the concert that Beethoven's Seventh was "rocking," an interesting description of a towering work. The first movement was indeed lively — Majkut chose energetic speeds through out the symphony — with the flute introducing the theme and the strings and horns commenting. The Adante unfolded minus the Wagnerian flavors some conductors endow it with.

The fiery last movement was thrilling, with flute and horns swept into the frenzy and the timpani thundering, the whole thing sweeping to a mad, life-affirming climax. It was a fine, revealing look at vintage Beethoven, and the audience brought Majkut back for a standing ovation.

The program will be presented again today at the Grants Pass High School Performing Arts Center, 830 Ninth St., Grants Pass.

Reach Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail bvarble@mailtribune.com.

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