Minus tie and baton as well, Maestro Robert Moody made a heroic return to the held of the Portland Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 30 at Merrill Auditorium. The featured work was “A Hero’s Life” by Richard Strauss and the unfortunate pun was as appropriate as well as accurate.

The soloist in the 20th Piano Concerto by Mozart was Henry Kramer. Playing Mozart is akin to walking on a high wire with no net. Everything is exposed and one can’t cover up sloppy or careless playing by keeping one’s foot on the peddle. He earned a bachelor’s as well as master’s degree from Julliard as well as an Artist Diploma from Yale. Among many other accolades and achievements he won second prize at the Queen Elizabeth in 2016 and the Recital Award from Julliard in 2015. He has been a featured soloist nationally and internationally and currently holds the post of associate professor of piano at the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music. The question is: Did he live up to his reputation? In my opinion, YES and then some. His “touch” was elegant and clear. Even in forte (loud) passages he never “banged” the superlative Steinway grand. He made clear distinction between soft, very soft, and whisper soft as well as other gradations of volume. His interpretation was ever musical and his rendition of the heavenly second movement was … heavenly. He earned the standing ovation and rewarded the audience with an encore. It should be noted that he and conductor Moody were always on the same page musically, and that the winds in the reduced orchestra outdid themselves in matching the music that Mozart must have simply put on paper from a source out of this world. “Truth, Beauty. That is all you know on earth and all you need to know” just about sums things up.

The Mozart opus was preceded by a work called “Eating Flowers” (sic) by Hannah Lash. She has impressive academic credentials (a bachelor’s degree from Eastman and a Ph.D. from Harvard). She has been the recipient of numerous commissions including one from the Boston Symphony.  She wrote that she was responding to the energies of orchestral music … Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Messian particularly. While I did hear some echoes of the latter (she kept the harp, piano and percussionists busy most of the piece), I failed to hear either echoes or energies of the others. What I did hear was a lot of complex rhythmic timbres in the brass much of the time. There was an attempt at a lyric episode in the strings that was soon overpowered by the brass. I thought it would end on two occasions but it didn’t. Nevertheless, Mr. Moody brought the composer on the stage for a bow and the audience responded to the presence of a live composer and applauded her effort. That she knows her way around the orchestra was apparent but I did not believe that in this piece that she had some musical, visual or literary idea that she was trying to express. The PSO as well as Mr. Moody realized in sound what was there on paper. No mean feat that.

Following intermission “A Hero’s Life” (or as it should also be known as the Fair Employment Practices Composition) by Richard Strauss was performed. It calls for a huge orchestra, one should note eight french horns! (Do you know the racket EIGHT horns can make?) There are winds in fours, diverse other instruments including a tenor tuba. The strings were outnumbered but were up to the challenge. The Hero in the title was no less than the composer himself and the different sections in the piece episodes in his life. There was an extended section in the middle of the piece that referred to his “beloved” and depicted different aspects of her personality. Mr. Charles Dimick, the orchestra’s concert master, distinguished himself here. Indeed, Moody as well as the entire ensemble distinguished themselves in the performance of this colorful and emotional work. He recognized individual as well as sectional leaders and accepted a solo bow himself.

— Dr. Morton Gold is a composer/conductor, retired educator and an Arts Reviewer for the Journal Tribune.