An intimate performance by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra at Slee Hall Wednesday night was enriched with diversity, once again proving that music is a universal entity.
Led by composer Petter Sundquist, the visiting orchestra delivered a breathtaking concert called "Musica Vitae."
Their program opened with "Tetrachordon for 15 Solostrakar" by Thomas Liljeholm. As the bows randomly flicked, high-pitched, tense notes were delivered sharply, painting the picture of thousands of little mice scurrying away from a giant force.
With such a variation in rhythms and pitches, the music quickly switches from the image of mice to the eerie visions of deep murky water moving slowly with one of nature's greatest beasts.
Abruptly changing musical directions, the extensive piece came to a peaceful and harmonic finish with soft and gentle sounds.
The next performance of the evening was a familiar classic, "Piano Concerto in E minor" by Frederic Chopin, featuring a sublime performance by pianist Petter Tengstrand.
Just when the sea of instruments would come to an end, the opposite would occur: a crashing wave of music would strike the shores, swallowing the audience up with it.
The music acted as a time machine, transporting listeners from their 21st century lives into a time period of gentle elegance. This powerful ability brought not only those in the audience into tears, but Tengstrand as well.
This became evident as he dramatically wiped his swollen eyes before he gave a final bow to an audience, nearly all on feet. The orchestra joined Tengstrand once again for "String Quartet in G Major, Op. 27" by Edvard Grieg.
While the strings shifted frantically from powerful screams of rage and passion to soft and tranquil harmonies countless times, the audience may have had difficulty distinguishing one part of the piece from the next. As the music began to sound the same, the key to hearing it tell an intricate story was in experiencing it as a whole, not stretching to pay attention to each part.
Because the concert hall was full of faces, each with a different story, everyone had their own interpretation of what the compositions meant to them.
Wenjun Wu, a computer science engineering graduate student was one of the audience members who got whisked away by the music, taking her back to her home in China.
"I cannot find the English words to express how the music makes me feel," Wu said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
