concert review: Mission Chamber Orchestra

This is the third concert season in a row that my editor has sent me down to review this unpretentious little orchestra, so I gave it an unpretentious little review. My spirits lightened when we got as far in Falla's El amor brujo as the "Ritual Fire Dance," which at least sounded familiar, and then they dampened again afterwards.

It did occur to me, elsewhere in the piece when the orchestra gives the sound of a clock striking midnight, that this was the second ballet score I'd heard with that effect. The first being Prokofiev's Cinderella, duh.

The only matter of real note in the concert I decided it was better not to critique. In the opening piece for strings, the playing was seriously not up to snuff, and I thought, oh dear this orchestra has devolved. But it hadn't: it was the high-school musicians they'd invited to play along with them in that one piece. Last time they did that, they'd made a big production out of it, having the high-schoolers play alone first, and even doing it in their school auditorium, so that time I was warned.