Firsts and farewells

The Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra will be closing out its Season of Firsts with a concert conducted by former PCSO Musical Director Huw Edwards titled Elgar 2 + Strauss 4 = Huw First, a play on the composers’ symphony numbers and Huw’s number of appearances as guest conductor.

Fittingly for the Season of Firsts, this will be the first time that either of these pieces have been performed by the symphony. In addition, Edwards will make his first appearance as conductor emeritus and principal guest conductor.

Edwards, who was the musical directer of PCSO for 12 seasons, stepped down last year.

“It is so good to have him back!” Betsy Hatton, the orchestra’s executive director, said in an email. “His passion and emotion make the music so meaningful.”

Edwards will be conducting two well-known symphonies: the “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss followed by Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 2 in E flat major.

Each of these symphonies was the last completed work by its respective composer. The choice of works adds a twist to the season of firsts, as they are the final words of two of the world’s greatest composers.

Strauss completed “Four Last Songs” shortly before his death in 1949, with the symphony premiering posthumously at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1950.

“Strauss’ opulent orchestrations are legendary, from his incredible series of symphonic poems and operas, and the voice here is set against a sumptuous and autumnal backcloth,” Edwards explained in the program notes. “The voice soars and is often ecstatic; it requires a supple voice of wide range and varying degrees of power.”

This symphony, written as a farewell to his wife, Pauline, was not originally a set but basically written for fun. These are songs both of reminiscence and farewell, and Strauss includes notable solos for the horn and the violin.

“It seems fitting that the orchestra has the final word in the ‘Four Last Songs,’ the serene last paragraph of this golden work being a broad meditation as Strauss’ heart sang for the last time,” Edwards wrote.

Elgar’s Symphony No. 2, which the composer himself referred to as “the passionate pilgrimage of the soul,” was completed in 1911 and premiered the same year. Although Elgar began work on a third symphony, it was never completed, making Symphony No. 2 his last completed work.

Many music lovers who are fans of Elgar’s first symphony may find this piece to be more emotionally complex, enigmatic and structurally diverse than many of Elgar’s other orchestral works.

Over time, it has also been discovered that this piece is far more autobiographical that it was once thought to be. For Edwards it is “about a man exploring his past a man wrestling with the contradictions of his own life.”

The “Four Last Songs” will be performed by Coral Walterman, a leading soprano in the Pacific Northwest.

Walterman has appeared with opera companies and orchestras throughout the region, most recently with Cascadia Concert Opera in their production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte as Fiordiligi and with the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra as Desdemona in their 2010 concert presentation of highlights from Verdi’s Otello.

Edwards, who was born South Wales, was the PCSO musical director from 2000–12. He has an international reputation as an outstanding artist and has been a well-known figure in the Portland music scene for more than 17 years.

In addition to his work with the symphony, he has worked with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Seattle Youth Philharmonic and is now in his 10th season as music director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington. In May of 2012 Edwards was appointed director of orchestral studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

His leadership has inspired a consistent sense of excitement in Olympia, and he is credited with greatly improving the quality of the orchestra, selecting challenging yet rewarding programs and being very active in the community.