Concert review: IRIS Orchestra's 'Taste of Heaven' elevates spirit

Photo by Jennifer Gasparian

Heidi Grant Murphy

When Heidi Grant Murphy starts singing, you marvel at how a human voice can do what it does.

Murphy's sweet, subtle, crystalline vocals elevated the luminously performed works in Saturday night's IRIS Orchestra concert at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

Maestro Michael Stern programmed the evening, titled "A Taste of Heaven," around Mahler's "Symphony No. 4 in G major," a stunning work that culminates with a child's view of heaven in the song "Das himmlische Leben" ("Heaven's Life").

This is the first time IRIS performed a Mahler symphony, and there's no question that Stern chose well. Mahler's symphonies range from big to gargantuan, but the Fourth is not unwieldy. Yet it is both cerebral and transcendent, beautifully blending the human and the spiritual, and the orchestra played with exquisite passion.

The final movement featured Murphy's singing, her lustrous soprano layering on another dimension of gorgeousness to the piece that enthralled the audience.

The acclaimed singer had already wowed the crowd earlier in the evening, first with the perfectly lovely Mozart aria "Ruhe sanft, mein holden Leben" ("Rest gently, my tender love").

Next, Murphy and the orchestra performed Copland's "Old American Songs, Sets 1 and 2," a collection of traditional 19th Century tunes ranging from a child's lullaby to the familiar strains of "Simple Gifts." The evening's only drawback was where the orchestra occasionally overpowered Murphy's voice.

Opening the evening was IRIS's pristine take on Debussy's "Children's Corner," half a dozen works the composer did in honor of his young daughter.

While the evening's theme relied on childlike wonder and the virtues of simplicity, there was nothing simplistic about the concert. The selections were well chosen and beautifully played, a reminder that purity of spirit in music as in any endeavor elevates us all.

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