Reviews

The Monterey Symphony continued its 77th season last weekend with a riveting program of storytelling music conducted by Jayce Ogren. At its heart, the much-anticipated world premiere of the piano concerto by composer-in-residence John Wineglass revealed again the Emmy winner's skill in holding a mirror to injustice within a container of hope, unwavering in both aspects. Its theme of The Great Migration follows the relocation of African Americans and other populations to urban  centers in the Northeast, Midwest and West. The concerto is dedicated to those who survived and escaped the Jim Crow oppression after the Civil War and to their descendants.

Ogren deftly led the orchestra and soloist Lara Downes through the work's powerful and tantalizing three movements from the musical depiction of "white ships with black cargo" to the later migrations to the cities. The second movement, "Plains, Trains and Automobiles," dropped listeners into a spirited and jazzy pandemonium of metropolitan life. The finale delivered an exhilarating homage to American resilience.

An exquisite keyboard artist, Downes gave the concerto a personal voice, bringing a heartfelt counterpoint to its immense thematic material. Her encore of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" perfectly concluded the first half of the program.

Ogren opened the concert with Weber's dramatic Overture to Der Freischutz and living composer Jennifer Higdon's popular blue cathedral, which is an elegy to her brother. The second half, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 with its celebrated Allegretto movement, made an ideal finish for the program.

A word to the wise, these Symphony concerts are selling out. Get tickets early.