Schelomo and Duo: assessing Joshua Roman’s Seattle legacy

After a textured performance of Paul Hindemith’s Concert Music for Strings and Brass the Seattle Symphony’s principal cellist, Joshua Roman glided into the center of the stage, cello in hand. The orchestra that gave him his professional start, was the orchestra with which Roman was about to launch in earnest, his new career as a soloist.

For the occasion, Roman chose Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo. Schelomo is not as well known as the concertos of Shostakovich, Dvorak, and even Elgar; at twenty minutes it is still a tour de force for both the cellist and the orchestra. The composition’s sensuous romantic thrust, heaving music, and haunting moments for solo cello stretch musicians to the limits of musical expression.

Roman and the orchestra were well suited as dramatic partners. The orchestra played forcefully, passionately even. Walter Gray, one of Roman’s fellow cellists seemed to feel every single note. His mop of gray curls – much like Roman’s blond curls – bounced around while his face was locked in a tight grimace. Others in the orchestra marshaled their own abilities, helping Roman carve a special moment in Seattle’s classical music history.

If the orchestra was going for broke, Roman mustered a refined but generous reading of Bloch’s most famous composition. Under his bow, Schelomo was tense, adding to the dramatic playing of the orchestra behind him, but respectful.

When Roman finished, the capacity audience erupted in applause. Soon after, the orchestra offered their own rapturous applause. The cellist had officially ended one phase of his career and started another.

In only two short years Roman has left a mark on Seattle’s musical life. As a cellist, Roman’s performances have been widely praised. As an artistic director for Town Hall’s Town Music Series, Roman’s impact has been more cultural than musical. His programs challenge notions of how Seattleites view classical music. They also create an environment for the curious to safely listen without unnecessary pretenses. Two years is barely any time for most musicians to leave a musical legacy. But, then again, Roman isn’t like other musicians. And even though he will be leaving Seattle for New York at the end of the SSO season, his connections to the Northwest will continue.

Next year he will perform with no fewer than four different Northwest orchestras, including the premiere of David Stock’s Cello Concerto with the Seattle Symphony, and he will continue to steward Town Hall’s budding Town Music Series. Since Roman’s time in Seattle has been defined in large part because of his performances at Town Hall and his playing with the Seattle Symphony, his final Town Music concert and his solo debut with the SSO provide valuable insight into the impact Roman has had.

For over two hours on May 11^th, Roman and diverse group of musicians from around Seattle shuffled onto the Town Hall stage played a piece or two and then shuffled off. The only constant was Joshua Roman. That night, Roman ended his first year as Artistic Director for Town Hall’s Town Music Series. The concert was titled “Duo.” It was a predictable concept given earlier in the season Roman programmed “Quartet” and “Solo.” The “Duo” program spanned music history and ranged from Chopin’s Polanaise Brillante to more recent pieces by Dan Visconti and Derek Bermel.

Earlier this Spring Roman announced through e-mail and Myspace that he had decided to forgo his position as principal cellist for the Seattle Symphony and focus exclusively on his solo career. For Roman’s fans the move wasn’t surprising; when he arrived, the conversation was always not if, but when would he move on.

Roman is leaving Seattle’s classical music scene better off. When he arrived, the cellist moved quickly into mainstream Seattle culture. He was the principal cellist for one of the West Coast’s best orchestras, but he was never confined by that identity. Had it been another city, another orchestra even, maybe Roman would have been lost in the shuffle. Seattle’s younger, faux cultured gave classical music a chance, in large part because they saw a bit of themselves in him. Roman’s youth and impeccable technique helped dust off classical music’s reputation and breathed relevance into an entire genre.

He was auctioned off as part of the Strangercrombie auction and found willing collaborators at the Triple Door. Roman even said in an interview with the Seattle Weekly that he would “love to see the classical music industry crumble, just absolutely fall to bits.” Within no time Roman became a sensation who crossed genres with ease. In a way, he embodied Seattle’s independent spirit.

While Roman succeeded in changing cultural perceptions of classical music in Seattle, his artistic legacy is less clear. Roman’s two years in Seattle have mixed daring program choices with brilliant playing. A Joshua Roman designed recital program is always diverse. He routinely juxtaposes pop song arrangements alongside traditional classical repertoire. In January it was Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time standing side-by-side with Radiohead. For “Duo,” Roman layered a multitude of short pieces for two instruments on top of one another. There were, of course, references to pop and rock music with arrangements of song’s by Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple; Roman and three other fellow cellists ended the evening with a cello quartet version of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.

Scattered between these pieces were short pieces for cello and almost every other conceivable instrument: viola, harp, violin, oboe, clarinet and a wayward piece for cello and cello quartet. Beethoven, Chopin, Halvorsen, Schulhoff, Hausmann, Bermel, Bartok, Visconti, Saint Saens, and Wilson were each represented on the program. The effect of so many pieces was both exhilarating and puzzling.

There was so much going on, so many quick changes, that pieces often became indistinguishable from one another. Each one moved into the next until the final work, Ann Wilson’s Lament, for cello and cello quartet (five total instruments were involved not two) brought the recital to an end. At least a few people in the audience probably wanted to spend some more time mulling over Ben Hausmann’s Duo in B Minor for Oboe and Cello. Lumped in with the myriad of other pieces, Hausmann’s work lost its identity. I would have preferred the hear violinist Mikhail Schmidt and Roman go through Erwin Schulhoff’s entire Duo for Violin and Cello. Because of Music of Remembrance, classical fans are probably more aware of Schulhoff’s music than in most cities. Like so many composers, musicians and other artists, Schulhoff suffered under Adolf Hitler and Nazi German and eventually died in a concentration camp. Instead of all four movements, the audience only heard the speedy Zingaresca and then it was on to the next twosome. Even if the audience felt overstimulated, they didn’t seem to mind. If anything, the audience’s willingness to hear so much different music, of varying quality and from diverse musical periods underscores Roman’s success with stripping away the old rules of classical music.

Roman’s pairings were variable. Mostly, if there were problems, it was because of the music itself and not the quality of the performance. Laura DeLuca (clarinet) and Roman both played well, but the audience was unreceptive and frankly a bit restless during Bermel’s groaning Coming Together. Similarly, Sarah Rudinoff’s husky voice was ill suited to Roman’s classical treatment of Joni Mitchell’s The Last Time I Saw Richard and Fiona Apple’s Not About Love.

Roman’s “Duo” recital isn’t unusual. Since taking over Town Music responsibilities, the cellist’s recital programs have been met with mixed response. Earlier in the year, the Roman devised Town Music recital “Quartet” was panned by the popular press.

His orchestral performances have been received better. Joshua Roman’s romp through cello concertos of Shostakovich, Schuman, and Haydn with the Northwest Sinfonietta drew accolades from the press. Melinda Bargreen, the former Seattle Times critic, had warm praise for Roman and his triple concerto concert:

“Roman saved the best for last, however, in a positively incendiary performance of the great Shostakovich First with the orchestra in commendable form. The middle movement, always an interpretive challenge, emerged as Roman’s deeply personal statement, meltingly beautiful. No technical demand was beyond this extraordinary young cellist; how lucky that a great set of fingers is also accompanied by a level of musical artistry achieved by few. Seattle music lovers, practice saying “I knew him when.” Joshua Roman has a starry future ahead.”

Roman’s success with the three cello concertos is indicative of a performer who has both raw talent and is fearlessly willing to peer into music of different emotional depth. Robert Schuman’s A Minor Concerto and Franz Josef Haydn’s D Major concerto do not sit at the top of the cello repertoire. But, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 in E Flat Major is another matter entirely. Bernard Jacobsen writing for Music Web noted:

“I came to this concert, then, with the highest expectations. They were not materially disappointed, but neither were they entirely fulfilled. I do not think I am guilty of revisionism if I suggest that Roman is not yet Rostropovich–not, for that matter, that he would ever want to be a mere copy or epigone…No one who was there need look back on this concert as anything other than a step in the growth of a genuinely top-class talent. The thought of what Joshua Roman will bring to the Shostakovich First when he has reached, let us say, the hoary age of 25 is enough to set any listener salivating delightedly in anticipation.”

The unevenness between Romans orchestral performances and recital programs is a reminder, as Jacobsen implies, the cellist is still a work in progress. The good news is, even when Roman is not his best, he is still better than most. With time his programs will probably become more coherent, complimenting his technical skill.

Since performing with the Northwest Sinfonietta, he has continued to push himself in directions that demand both skill and interpretive heft. A recent performance of William Walton’s Cello Concerto with the Seattle Youth Symphony and of course, Schelomo proved Roman has more than just good technique at his disposal.

In Schelomo the music swells and subsides; orchestral climaxes and introspective cadenza-like passages for the cello contrast with each other. The cello, according to the composer, symbolizes King Solomon’s own voice. Roman’s cello sang and cried along with orchestra. His unwavering technique was coupled with a firm interpretation you would expect of someone with an abiding respect and love for the piece. Roman’s presence was mannered and differently communicative. Unlike other soloists, Roman let the music and not facial contortions, grunts and other tics tell us how we should feel.

According to some in Seattle’s classical music circles, there is open debate as to whether Roman is capable of interpretations that are both meaty and technically sound. These voices claim, unlike instrumentalists and composers of the last century, Roman hasn’t suffered for the music. He hasn’t toiled under the specter of Communism and a fickle Joseph Stalin. Nor did he flee Europe as Adolf Hitler’s armies stormed through Western Europe. These people claim that only through enduring unimaginable difficulties does a musician come to really understand how to give voice to a piece of music. There is no question persevering in the Soviet Union worked well for Mistislav Rostropovich, but suffering and misery are not prerequisites for great music making. Yo-Yo Ma’s extroverted style and Pierre Fournier’s patrician gracefulness tell us otherwise. Barely in his twenties, Roman has room to maneuver, to find a voice that works for him.

If Joshua Roman’s arrival was met with excitement, his decision to launch a solo career is only extending this enthusiasm. There will be voices who claim the cellist doesn’t have the insight necessary to give revelatory performances of the bedrock pieces of the cello repertoire. Others, myself included, may question his programmatic choices as he continues his tenure as Town Music’s Artistic Director. But neither criticism can erase the positive impact the cellist has had on classical music in Seattle. Roman’s skill as a musician has already given music lovers in Seattle plenty of material to justify bragging to friends “I knew Joshua Roman when…”