Concert to feature sounds of ‘Animals’ Young pianists will join BSO finale on Saint-Saens’ beasts

ORONO – Symphonic music can be a beast. All those instruments. All those notes. Music that goes on for more than three minutes.

But just for fun, take a minute and think of symphonic music as an animal instead of a beast. Imagine music that sounds like a hen, tortoise, elephant, kangaroo, a flock of birds or a swan floating on a lake. That’s what the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens did when he wrote “The Carnival of the Animals,” a zoological suite that uses two pianos and an orchestra to re-create the ambience of the critter world.

The centerpiece for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s final concert of the season on Sunday, May 21, and for Youth Concerts on Monday, May 22, at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, “Carnival” also highlights the talents of two young pianists: 18-year-old Pallavi Mahidhara, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and 19-year-old Henry Kramer, who was raised in Cape Elizabeth and is now a student at The Juilliard School in Manhattan.

For the BSO to continue to succeed, said Maestro Xiao-Lu Li, it must engage young people both onstage and in the audience. “Young people are the future,” said Li. “Young artists need role models.”

And others need performance opportunities. Li tapped Pallavi to play with the BSO in 2002 after hearing her at a competition in Connecticut. Henry won the BSO youth competition last year, and performing live with the symphony is part of his award.

Although both musicians have played in the past with the BSO and have shared a teacher in New York City, they have not played a concert together. Last weekend, they met in Washington, D.C., where Pallavi lives, to practice “Carnival.”

“Henry is a very nice person,” said Pallavi, a week before their first rehearsal.

“She seems like a really relaxed, cool girl,” said Henry.

And those weren’t the only points on which the two musicians agreed. Speaking from their respective cell phones (Pallavi in the District of Columbia, Henry walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City), each one talked about the 14 movements in the Saint-Saens work. Henry called the first movement – “The Royal March of the Lion” – a “growl” with a “hairpin crescendo.” Pallavi called it “regal” and “grand,” with a “lionlike roar.” For “Hens and Cocks,” they used the same words: clucking, jumpy, nervous. For the “Kangaroos” section: hoppy. For “Aviary”: busy and fleeting.

Saint-Saens also includes a movement for another animal: pianists. It essentially displays the exercises that keyboardists take on for their art.

“It’s funny,” said Pallavi, of the segment that gently mocks her instrument. She performed the piece a few years ago in concert. “Some people purposely trip over their notes in this part. It’s comical. That’s not exactly the way Saint-Saens intended it to be – with wrong notes all over the place. But I do agree: Pianists can be animals at times.”

“I’m not insulted,” said Henry, with a chuckle. “Sometimes people who are crazy about practicing are kind of like trained monkeys.”

When Saint-Saens wrote “Carnival” in 1886, he considered it whimsical and played it only for private gatherings with friends. After his death, it became one of his most popular pieces, ranking among other favorite family works such as Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.”

“It’s a popular piece, not a great masterpiece,” said Pallavi, who favors earlier Romantic composers such as Bach, Haydn and Mozart. “But I don’t take the Saint-Saens any less seriously than something else. It’s a different mind-set. It doesn’t require psychoanalysis. It’s something to just enjoy.”

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will present Bedrich Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride: Overture,” Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, and Camille Saint-Saens’ “The Carnival of the Animals,” featuring pianists Pallavi Mahidhara and Henry Kramer, 3 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The guest artists also will perform “Carnival” with the BSO during Youth Concerts 9:45 and 11:30 a.m., and 1:15 p.m. Monday, May 22, at MCA. For information or tickets, call 942-5555 or (800) 639-3221.