South Florida Classical Review

Gerard Schwarz conducted the Frost Symphony Orchestra Saturday night  at Gusman Concert Hall. File photo: Savannah Methner

Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is familiar repertoire at symphony concerts. Yet Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall. Gerard Schwarz presented an infrequently heard version of the score that harks back to the original balletic conception at the Frost Symphony Orchestra’s final concert of the season. The concert’s first half offered an opportunity for Frost music students and a faculty composer to hold the spotlight.

Schwarz commenced the program with Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral. Higdon’s 2000 vignette has become an American classic, played by virtually every major orchestra in the United States and abroad. Written for the 75^th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music (where Higdon has been a faculty member), the work references her late brother through the prominent part for clarinet, the instrument he played. 

Higdon herself plays the flute and she opens the score with a flute solo. The prominence of both instruments reflects her family remembrances. Higdon’s trademark lyricism is evident throughout the twelve-minute work. In many ways, the piece suggests Samuel Barber in the music’s melodic flow and increasing agitation similar to Barber’s three Essays for orchestra. Schwarz’s attention to instrumental details and effective contouring of the brass at climactic moments fully realized the vision of hope and solace in Higdon’s most frequently played score.

Angela Wang, a doctoral candidate at the Frost school, was soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with Harris Han Andersen, a Schwarz student, on the podium. 

Wang’s strong technique and lean tonal focus encompassed the familiar concerto’s intricacies and challenges. Accurate and, clearly well rehearsed, her reading yet lacked that extra spark of inspiration that can make the score take flight. She was at her best in the finale where her fleet bowing and lightness of articulation captured much of the vigor of Mendelssohn’s climactic display of violin fireworks. Andersen’s accompaniment was well coordinated, shaping tempos and phrasing in tandem with Wang. Only in a few moments did his enthusiasm veer into overdrive, overwhelming Wang’s slender sound.

The premiere of Coral Gables Centennial Suite by faculty composer Carlos Rafael Rivera proved an effectively conceived occasion piece. Rivera is a Grammy and Emmy winner for his work in film and television. In pre-performance comments, he indicated some of the work’s six sections will be utilized in an app he is working on with the city of Coral Gables. 

Rivera’s skill at mood painting was evident in the Latin- inflected opening, “La Puerta del Sol.” The bustle of Miracle Mile and the solemnity of a cemetery pass by on this tour of the city which culminates in a Miami Hurricanes football game. The Frost Band of the Hour (the school’s fully costumed marching contingent) entered in front of the orchestra, complete with baton twirler, for a boisterous finale. Schwarz gave full voice to Rivera’s multi-hued sound portraits.

Stravinsky created no less than four versions of a suite from his 1910 ballet L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird). The 1919 edition are is most often performed but Schwarz selected Stravinsky’s first 1911 iteration which adheres to the lavish scoring of the original ballet. Since that suite did not contain the work’s climactic sections, Schwarz appended the “Berceuse” and finale but retained Stravinsky’s original orchestration rather than the scaled-down instrumentation of the later suites. 

Under Schwarz’s masterful direction, the student players rendered a performance that was on a fully professional level. There was not a single weakness in any of the orchestral sections or first chair solos.

Schwarz’s ear for the color of individual timbres was fully on display with the winds especially distinctive. He captured the energy and agitated rhythm of the Firebird’s Dance with precise ensemble playing. The moments of languorous Russian nostalgia, reminiscent of Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, resounded with rounded, lustrous string sonorities. The singing tone of concertmaster Michael Wu’s solos glistened. 

There was a light footed, balletic energy in the “Dance of the Princesses.” The opening chords of the “Infernal Dance of Kashchei” emerged razor sharp and daunting. Schwarz brought out the wild turbulence of the evil magician’s tour de force, fully envisioning the harsh reverberations of Le Sacre du Printempts that was to come two years later. A beautifully shaped, warmly glowing bassoon solo encapsulated the magic of the lullaby. As the strings transitioned softly to the finale, the solo horn pealed forth full and voluminous.

This superb reading of the music that brought Stravinsky to world renown was a testament to the quality of the students now attending the Frost School and to Schwarz’s skill as an orchestral builder and interpretive artist. It would be hard to envision a better, more joyous end to the UM concert season.

The Frost Symphony Orchestra opens the 2025-2026 season September 20 with Gerard Schwarz conducting the premiere of Bernard Rands’ Chant, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Santiago Rodriguez.   music.miami.edu

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