Concerts honor musician> Torkanowsky’s talents animate performances

It’s hard to know for which legacy Werner Torkanowsky will be best remembered — his conducting, his compositions, or his performances on violin. This weekend, concertgoers had the chance to consider him in all these areas of his talent and expertise as two concerts at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono memorialized both Torkanowsky’s music and his contribution to the performance of music in Maine.

Torkanowsky was born in Germany, got off to an early start as a skilled musician, and had a successful career as conductor of the New Orleans Philharmonic for 14 years. He was also a student of the greatly respected conductor Pierre Monteux, who not only made Torkanowsky his protege but gave him a connection to Maine. That connection eventually brought Torkanowsky to Hancock Point and to a 10-year tenure as conductor of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra before his death in 1992.

As music director, Torkanowsky offered the Bangor Symphony, reputedly the oldest community orchestra in the country, a rare opportunity to work with a highly respected and talented conductor, one who bridged the gap between the old and the new, between Europe and America. His full-time residency in Maine made him an integral part of the community and brought an unprecedented distinction to the orchestra.

Concurrent with his years as music director of the Bangor Symphony, Torkanowsky performed with the New England Piano Quartette, which played a program of his original music Saturday. Pianist Frank Glazer, violinist Curtis Macomber, violist Scott Woolweaver and cellist George Sopkin presented four of Torkanowsky’s compositions.

If it can be said that a composer’s music gives some insight into its creator’s history and soul, then these works presented a complex and turbulently thoughtful man. All of the pieces were written within the last 20 years and shared elements of folk, classical and modern music styles with complicated rhythms, disconcerting tempos and heady themes.

“Trio ’79,” “String Trio,” “Three Songs,” and “Quartet” showed Torkanowsky’s propensity for intense and dramatic emotion. He was not a composer who shied away from troubling or tragic thoughts. Indeed, as a note to “Three Songs,” which was performed articulately and soulfully by Glazer and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Erskine Patches, Torkanowsky wrote that a tragic sense of life was a prime motivator of his music.

To capture the compositions in all their moodiness and technique would require a group of exacting and masterly musicians. The New England Piano Quartette was just that, and their fine abilities did proper justice to these works. Though the music may have seemed more accessible to trained musicians than to the average listener, the Quartette performed it with great care and acumen. It is likely to be a long time before an entire program of Torkanowsky’s work is heard here again, and the New England Piano Quartette offered insight into one of Maine’s most notable musicians.

It was one experience to hear how a composer constructs his own art. It was quite another to see how others view him. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra offered just that perspective Sunday in a concert premiering “Remembrance,” a work inspired by the friendship shared between bassist-composer Robert Rohe and Torkanowsky. Rich and complicated, vibrant and elegant, “Remembrance” was a dynamic portrait of a beloved mentor as well as a tribute to the golden years of Torkanowsky’s time with the Bangor Symphony.

A composition for strings, the piece was primarily romantic with lovely interplay between Lynn Brubaker on violin, Dorcas McCall on viola and Adele Adkins on cello. Conducted by Christopher Zimmerman, with Robert Rohe in attendance in his usual spot of principal bassist, the orchestra excelled and won one of three standing ovations for the afternoon.

It would be easy to allow the memory of Torkanowsky to overshadow Sunday’s concert but the Bangor Symphony was, in fact, in excellent shape for the presentation of three other works, and gave an afternoon of music that the late Torkanowsky surely would have applauded.

The overture to “Iphigenie in Aulis” by Christoph Gluck had a speed and fluidity that were splendid, and showed the Bangor Symphony string musicians at their brightest and fullest.

Peter Re, Bangor Symphony music director from 1964 to 1976, took the baton to present “Celebratory Overture,” which he composed for the centennial celebration of the symphony this year. Commissioned by Bangor Symphony percussionist Bernard Miller and his wife, Gloria, the work reflected Re’s training with avant-garde composer Paul Hindemith. The sound was big, stirring, abundantly colorful and probably as much fun to play as to hear. Re was warmly received by those who remember him from 20 years ago and by those who were pleased with his enthusiastic musical contribution to Bangor Symphony history.

The orchestra scaled up to its largest proportions for Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”), which was nearly larger than life in its orchestral bravado. The second movement had particular pizzazz, and the third was so lively that it brought down the house.

The weekend resounded with assurances of the place classical music has held in this town. The look into the past was a compelling reminder of the talent the state attracts. And the high-quality performance of the city’s community orchestra, which has grown under the baton of outstanding conductors, holds a promise for the place classical music performances will continue to have in the future.