South Florida Classical Review

Jorge Mejia performed the U.S. premiere of his piano concerto, If These Walls Could Talk, with the Frost Symphony Orchestra Sunday at the Arsht Center. Photo: Arsht Center

Latin Grammy winner Jorge Mejia was the audience draw for a rare downtown excursion to the Arsht Center by the University of Miami’s Frost Symphony Orchestra on Sunday night. The evening’s real excitement, however, was a riveting account  of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony under the seasoned direction of Gerard Schwarz.

The program opened with a brisk reading of Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso. It was wonderful to hear the Frost ensemble in the Arsht where the sound had greater space to reverberate and engulf the listeners rather than the cramped acoustics of UM Gusman Concert Hall on campus. 

As has so often been the case, Schwarz drew the best from his student players. A well-articulated bassoon solo and the shimmering undercurrent of two harps were clear and transparent through the orchestral fabric. Climaxes were skillfully achieved and Schwarz brought a wide dynamic palette to Ravel’s Spanish-tinged portrait of a jester’s serenade.

Mejia is a pianist, composer and music publishing executive. An alumnus of the Frost School of Music and member of the board of directors of the New World Symphony, Mejia commands a popular following, which was obvious from the cheers that greeted his appearance on stage. 

Mejia’s concerto, If These Walls Could Talk, which he has performed widely in Europe and Latin America, was being heard Sunday in its U.S. premiere. The inspiration for the work is a fanciful scenario telling the story of a building at 221 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach where Mejia lived in the 2000’s.

Each of the three movements portrays an inhabitant on each of the building’s three floors, who represent different eras in the building and the city’s history: the mid-1920’s, World War II and the massive gentrification of the 1980’s. As Mejia told the audience, the property has survived them all. Each of the three movements was preceded by a narrative in which Mejia sketched a biography of the characters and the times.The composer is an engaging storyteller and his commentary vividly conjured up a portrait of a community in constant flux and transition.

While the idea was intriguing, Mejia’s music proved considerably less effective. More a suite than a concerto, the score tended to sound like movie music a with lounge piano overlay. The pop and jazz interludes in the first movement were appealing but the musical depiction of the devastating 1926 hurricane proved sorely underpowered. 

The second movement, illuminating a pianist turned nurse in a ward for soldiers wounded in the war, seemed the work’s strongest component. A haunting theme and richly tinted orchestration gave diverting feeling and illustration of the wartime mood, both pensive and hopeful. 

Im the finale a catchy motif depicts a former actress who battles developers in the finale with a jazzed-up conclusion. Mejia asked the audience to sing along; most listeners did not. Ultimately thin in substance, the work falls pleasantly on the ear but seems better suited to a commercial recording than the concert stage.

Mejia effectively played the piano lines. Schwarz lavished the same skill and artistry on Mejia’s piece that he brings to the weightier classics of the American symphonic repertoire. The orchestra gave spirit and lustrous sound to Mejia’s pop impressions.

Gerard Schwarz conducted the Frost Symphony Orchestra Sunday night at the Arsht Center.

Most of Mejia’s fans stayed for the performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor and listened attentively although the constant applause between movements indicated that many were novice concertgoers. The symphony received its premiere in 1953 shortly after Stalin’s death. It seems to embody the fear and terror of his tyrannical reign. The symphony also gives credence to Prokofiev’s observation that Shostakovich was Russia’s version of Mahler, so potent is the symphony’s agony and sarcasm.

The score’s opening pages set the tone of anguished, intense emotion. Nine double basses and a cello contingent gave expressive power to the dark undercurrents and a mellow clarinet took solo honors. Throughout the opening Moderato movement, Schwarz kept the tension level at high voltage. He shaped the epilogue in broad and eloquent layers. The balancing of flute and piccolo in a final reprise of the movement’s principal subject was perfectly achieved.

The frightening menace of the scherzo emerged at break neck tempo, replete with strong brass and whipcrack percussion. Clipped phrasing gave distinctive emphasis to the main theme of the third movement Allegretto. Fine, clean articulation by the horns stood out in an excellent ensemble effort, and Schwarz managed the changes of pulse seamlessly. 

He sustained the eerie atmosphere of the introduction to the final movement. Outstanding solos from flute, clarinet and bassoon gave prominence to the FSO’s exceptional wind section. The ironic figure that forms the basis of the finale was given a crisp edge, the full orchestra playing with power and force. Schwarz ratcheted up the excitement level in the coda, concluding a stunning reading that reflected his accomplished ongoing leadership of the Frost orchestral program.

The Frost Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz opens the 2026-2027 season with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 and Flute Concerto in D Major, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”)  7:30 p.m. September 19 at UM Gusman Concert Hall in Coral Gables.

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