Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Delivers a Dark, Magnificent First Concert of the Semester

On March 8 in Sanders Theatre, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra gave the third concert of their 2024-2025 season — the first of this semester. They chose to do a concert featuring solely Soviet Era works: Ustvolskaya’s “Symphonic Poem No. 2,” as well as two works by Shostakovich, including excerpts from his “Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti” and his complete “Symphony No. 11.” The concert, though morbid, succeeded with flying colors.

Ustvolskaya was a highly unconventional composer. A student of Shostakovich’s (his only female student at the time), her music unsettled even him — which is no mean feat considering the intensity of Shostakovich’s music. In her day, she was relatively unpopular, but interest in her music has increased in recent years. In 1959, Ustvolskaya wrote her “Symphonic Poem No. 2,” a ten-minute work which is marked by unyielding darkness. The piece is texturally rich and requires continuous engagement from all parts of the orchestra to maintain its intensity.

HRO did not hold back one bit — they have no fear of spectacle. The performance, conducted by music director Federico Cortese, was loud and forceful. At first the horns sounded a little shaky, but they quickly picked themselves up. The percussion section was on point, and the acoustics of Sanders Theatre aptly carried each timpani strike and cymbal crash. About halfway through the piece, the strings hold a high tremolo for an exceedingly lengthy amount of time. The string players maintained their focus the whole way through, and the sound never faltered. It was a really good performance of a fiery, despairing piece.

Next came three songs out of Shostakovich’s “Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti.” Many know Michelangelo as a visual artist, but many do not know that he was also a poet. In 1974, a year before he died, Shostakovich decided to put Michelangelo’s verses, translated into Russian by Avram Efos, to music. The orchestra performed the final three, called “Night,” “Death,” and “Immortality.” The poems shift in tone: The first is mysterious and only hints at despair, the second is truly despondent, and the third presents hope and joy in spite of mortality. The performances were once again superb. Led by Federico Cortese, the orchestra was capable of playing in a wide range of very precise volumes. The strings, especially, displayed keen dynamic sensitivity. Bass Junhan Choi has an excellent voice, and he was able to hit some of the higher notes beautifully while capturing the dark, bellowing tone needed for the lower ones. The harpist Olivia Lee — a guest musician — played elegantly and added a lot to the mystique and serenity of certain moments.

After intermission, HRO was ready to perform the longest work of the night — Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 11.” The symphony has a program, it is meant to describe (in music) the Russian Revolution of 1905 — specifically the events of Bloody Sunday, in which working class protestors were killed by the Tsar’s army. Each of the four movements carries the story along. Many believe that the symphony is a subtle condemnation of Soviet Russia, despite commemorating the early seeds of its rise. The first, a slow and very, very foreboding movement, relies heavily upon ethereal string playing. HRO, per usual, played it very well. Cortese chose a great tempo for this movement; it was slow enough to capture the mystery and dread, but not so slow as to hinder the forward motion. On certain occasions the horns seemed to have trouble controlling their dynamics, but overall they did a great job. The timpani, too, was well played. The second movement — which is very explosive — was certainly a highlight of the concert. The music swelled to tormented, violent crescendos as it depicted the massacre, and the orchestra went full force. The horns were blasting and the strings were playing with arduous passion. It was a stunning moment.

The third movement had touches of that same explosivity, but it also offered some tranquility. The most beautiful parts of the concert were found in this movement, when the violas recurrently played a gorgeous melody of lament. The fourth movement was, once again, performed excellently. The horns and the woodwinds, specifically, played very well, and the orchestra bookended a great concert with a great finale.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra is remarkable. At their best, they sound borderline professional — no mean feat for a group of students. This concert was long and the music was endlessly despairing, but the orchestra demonstrated their worth and, ultimately, the worth of the music.

—Staff writer Nate H. Cohen can be reached at nate.cohen@thecrimson.com.