By Jon W. Sparks - The Commercial Appeal

Monday, March 1, 2010

The IRIS Orchestra routinely has a guest artist to show off, but Saturday night's performance departed from that formula.

It featured, rather, a superlative string ensemble of the IRIS musicians performing pieces that all had origins as string quartets but were later upgraded to symphonic size.

Leading off the program was Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, scored for orchestra by Arturo Toscanini, a lush and handsome piece that embodied the essence of poetry.

Ending the evening was Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, scored for orchestra by Gustav Mahler. This, too, was sumptuous and beautifully played by the 25 musicians.

But the prize was in between those two works. John Corigliano's Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra -- created by the composer from a string quartet -- is a hauntingly beautiful cry of anguish. A range of emotions encompass sorrow and loneliness, and the Corigliano masterpiece tenderly and brilliantly examines them with a raw intellectualism.

The first movement is eerie and visceral, using mutes to evoke a tentative feeling before before moving into a surer, sadder state. The second movement by contrast is frenetic, almost panicky. Succeeding movements plumb the agonies of loss with various elements, using call-and-response, for example, and the strange, haunting effect of klaxon/doppler sounds.

It is a ferociously difficult piece, and its notation is a trial for the musicians who must, nonetheless, revel in the challenge. The IRIS Orchestra rose to it beautifully under the direction of maestro Michael Stern.

Although it won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in music, it's also a controversial work simply because it offers little of the comfort of Verdi or Beethoven. There were harrumphs about it during intermission, but Stern is to be cheered for programming it, and the IRIS Orchestra lauded for a glorious performance.