Starting a Musical Evolution

Down again from the Great White North of Canada, the brothers Brott descended on the Ventura County music scene two weekends back, reminding us of their singular impact on the area’s musical landscape.

Cellist Denis Brott, who teaches at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West every summer, was returning as guest soloist for the New West Symphony, which has been led for years by his brother, Boris.

They made beautiful music together, with the help of an orchestra that continues to be a pleasure to behold.

But, family relations aside, another significant point about the most recent New West program was the freshness of its approach to repertoire. We’re in a time when this orchestra, like many around the country, has grown cautious and generally conservative, fiscally and artistically (the two being inextricably linked). What can symphonies do at a time like this to preserve musical vitality, unless it’s a major metropolitan orchestra with a reputation for taking chances, like Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Los Angeles Philharmonic or Michael Tilson Thomas’ San Francisco Symphony?

Here, in the humbler geographical demographic of Ventura County, was a neat solution. The New West served up the beloved warhorse of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in the concert’s second half, with two relatively obscure but musically accessible works in the first. Balance was salvaged, imaginations were stretched.

The oddest and most intriguing work of the evening was “And God Created Whales,” by the late, eccentric, hopelessly prolific Alan Hohvaness. The Armenian American composer, who lived reclusively in Seattle and died last year, concocted big, impressionistic orchestral work like this piece. Atmospheric qualities abounded, including coloristic effects from an orchestra allowed some improvisational leeway. Pentatonic melodies and actual whale sounds blended in, as well, in this 1970 work. Hohvaness was a man out of time, perhaps just now starting to get some attention due.

For Denis Brott’s part, the cellist demonstrated a bold presence as the protagonist for the “Hebraic Rhapsody: Schelomo,” a well-known example of Jewish-themed classical music by Ernst Bloch (1880-1959). Dating from 1916, the piece dips into 19th century romantic vocabulary while hinting ever so slightly at a more Modernist style, savoring its brooding intensity.

The music’s elegiac character, with Denis an articulate center of the cogent orchestral swirl, seemed appropriate for this time when mourning is still a part of the daily national mood.

For an encore, Denis stripped down the surroundings to perform an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile for cello and string quartet. It was a fine showcase for his rich tone and clarity of melodic integrity, as well as a fitting segue into the concert’s second half, the showpiece for his brother and the well-tuned charges. On this familiar turf, the orchestra gave an alert and overall moving interpretation, up through its gushing finale, ending with a literal bang.

In this program, all the pieces were in place. We were reminded, on a local level, why orchestral culture is so important to preserve and keep alive.

Folk Folks: The Mill in Santa Paula is a fine place for folk people to ply their wares, and they keep coming, from various corners of the national music scene.

Next up in the ongoing series of shows in this intimate space is Tom Russell, the widely respected veteran singer-songwriter who tells inspiring tales, wrapped in not-so-plain brown musical wrappers. His latest album is “Borderland,” examining the mesh of cultures in El Paso and Juarez, as well as borders of the romantic variety and their attendant problems and allures.

* Tom Russell, the Mill, 926 W. Railroad Ave., Santa Paula, Friday, 8 p.m. Tickets are $15; call (805) 646-4706 for reservations.

College Footwork: Holiday spirits may lean into the idea of a festive, circus-oriented dance program like “Harlequin,” which aims at the kind of mix of elements seen in the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil. Props will include hoops, tightrope, balls and other accouterments of the postmodern circus. The show is being presented by the Ventura College Dance Performance Class with the Plexus Dance Theatre and the MacKinnon Dance Academy.

* Ventura College Dance Company, “Harlequin,” 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Tickets are $8 for general admission, $6 for students and seniors; (805) 653-7565.

Community Mozart: Also at Ventura College, next Wednesday, will be a “mostly Mozart” concert by the Ventura College Community Orchestra. Pianist Miriam Arichea will be the soloist in Mozart’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 20, and soprano Lisa Hofer will sing in Mozart’s “Exsultate Jubilate.”

Rounding out an easy-does-it, all-ages-invited program will be the pastiche of “Symphony Movements,” a tossed salad of excerpts from different composers.

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* Ventura College Community Orchestra, “Mozart Gala,” Ventura College Theatre, Wednesday, 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students and seniors; (805) 654-6459.