New Millennium highlights unity, glory

The larger of the new works was “Umoja: Anthem of Unity,” by Valerie Coleman. It’s a celebratory work for the holiday of Kwanzaa. Cornell chose it as the cry for unity and joyous celebration that we need now. It begins with high spectral sheens for the strings and a solo for associate concertmaster Karen Muir, followed by melodies in other instruments and a scherzo section in winds and percussion. It concludes with dignified joy in the form of dance rhythms for the entire orchestra. This is a work in bright bold colors that gives its celebration in a measured way.

The late Nancy Bloomer Deussen, a local composer and a favorite at NMCO, wrote “The Transit of Venus” a decade ago to celebrate viewing Venus’ transit of the sun on a telecast she viewed at the NASA-Ames Research Center. The transit, slow and deliberate, takes about five hours and the music is only 12 minutes but it does convey the soft awe that the composer felt at this rare astronomical conjunction. It consists of soft waves as different instruments emerge in a colorful way, building up to calm climaxes with a light march episode inserted. Cornell said the music reminded her of “Neptune,” the quietest movement of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” The gentle curling wind lines in the opening and closing were the most reminiscent in this way.

The high classical style we associate with Haydn and Mozart emerged out of the previous Baroque style of Johann Sebastian Bach over a period of about 50 years in the 18th century. The rest of Sunday’s concert consisted of three German and Austrian works tracing that evolution.

The earliest was a Concerto for Cello in G Minor from the 1740s by Georg Matthias Monn. This is essentially a Baroque work with elaborate curlicues of line, though the slow movement shows some signs of the simpler emerging galant style. Natsumi Nakamura, principal cellist with the orchestra, played with a consistent plaintlike tone and displayed a solid knowledge of her part although some of its figurations were a technical challenge.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the most talented son of the great Johann Sebastian, wrote his Symphony in D Major, H. 663, the first of a set of four, in the mid-1770s. Like most of his symphonies, it displays the “Sturm und Drang” (storm and stress) style popular at that time. This style takes the Baroque penchant for detail and applies it to the style’s more open power of presentation. The first movement in particular is full of stabbing repeated notes and abrupt bursts. Its fierce weirdness was a little beyond the volunteer orchestra’s ability to grasp. The players did better in the calm slow movement and the swirling finale.

They reached full glory in the Symphony No. 104 in D Major by Joseph Haydn. This work from the 1790s was Haydn’s final symphony and the capstone of high classicism. This was a fine full-bodied rendition for such a small ensemble. It was loud and dignified, witty but simply presented in the classical-style. Passages for winds alone were particularly exciting, especially when followed by full orchestral outbursts.

NMCO’s winter concert, to be held in San Mateo and Palo Alto Feb. 24-25, will feature arctic-related music by Scandinavian composers and the winner of the orchestra’s Concerto Competition for young artists.