concert reviews
Dec. 15th, 2008 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI thought I was done with concerts for the Christmas season, didn't I? Wrong again. I had two of them this weekend.
First, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, local virtuoso group whose new director is one of the oddest-sounding violinists around. She's OK when leading the ensemble as concertmaster, but as solo violinist in two Brandenburg Concertos ... that was something else again. Baroque music goes with the holiday season, I guess: so does a medley indiscriminately mixing Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs, including the sacred candle blessings. I tried to repress memories of my grammar-school Christmas pageant at which the Hanukkah interlude was introduced with the words, "Now let's see how other people celebrate Christmas" (argh). Best parts of the concert were a sprightly bit of Handel for orchestra (Handel is always good with sprightly), and a riveting solo-soprano performance of a motet by Morten Lauridsen, one of those contemporary choral composers who hasn't forgotten that the artist is the maker of beautiful things.
This was all for me on the understanding that I'd write a review of it. My editors found a nice photo of orchestra members - no, that isn't all of them; it's a small group but not that small - with the director in the middle looking a little like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ellen_kushner and the cellist I praise in the last paragraph over at the right looking a little like ron_drummond. That other black-and-white photo is supposed to be of the soprano, but it doesn't look much like her.
The other concert was on my own hook, a community orchestra called the Nova Vista Symphony in a winter-themed concert. I went to this one primarily because they'd unearthed an obscure Prokofiev suite called "Winter Bonfire" (Op. 122, composed 1950). It's not a major work unfairly forgotten, but it was interesting to hear. The orchestra sounded more at home in pops music, like Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and Percy Faith's "Brazilian Sleigh Bells", though they did OK in the day's other Prokofiev, the "Lieutenant Kijé Suite", which also has a sleigh ride in it. They also threw in the finale of Sibelius's Violin Concerto on the grounds that Finland is a cold country, at least at this time of year. This performance had insufficient bounce, but the soloist, a conservatory student named Emily Nenninger, had the grit and pedal-to-the-metal bow technique to make the most of it. It made a change from hearing Vivaldi's "Winter" concerto, again.
First, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, local virtuoso group whose new director is one of the oddest-sounding violinists around. She's OK when leading the ensemble as concertmaster, but as solo violinist in two Brandenburg Concertos ... that was something else again. Baroque music goes with the holiday season, I guess: so does a medley indiscriminately mixing Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs, including the sacred candle blessings. I tried to repress memories of my grammar-school Christmas pageant at which the Hanukkah interlude was introduced with the words, "Now let's see how other people celebrate Christmas" (argh). Best parts of the concert were a sprightly bit of Handel for orchestra (Handel is always good with sprightly), and a riveting solo-soprano performance of a motet by Morten Lauridsen, one of those contemporary choral composers who hasn't forgotten that the artist is the maker of beautiful things.
This was all for me on the understanding that I'd write a review of it. My editors found a nice photo of orchestra members - no, that isn't all of them; it's a small group but not that small - with the director in the middle looking a little like
ellen_kushner and the cellist I praise in the last paragraph over at the right looking a little like ron_drummond. That other black-and-white photo is supposed to be of the soprano, but it doesn't look much like her.The other concert was on my own hook, a community orchestra called the Nova Vista Symphony in a winter-themed concert. I went to this one primarily because they'd unearthed an obscure Prokofiev suite called "Winter Bonfire" (Op. 122, composed 1950). It's not a major work unfairly forgotten, but it was interesting to hear. The orchestra sounded more at home in pops music, like Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and Percy Faith's "Brazilian Sleigh Bells", though they did OK in the day's other Prokofiev, the "Lieutenant Kijé Suite", which also has a sleigh ride in it. They also threw in the finale of Sibelius's Violin Concerto on the grounds that Finland is a cold country, at least at this time of year. This performance had insufficient bounce, but the soloist, a conservatory student named Emily Nenninger, had the grit and pedal-to-the-metal bow technique to make the most of it. It made a change from hearing Vivaldi's "Winter" concerto, again.
