concert review: St. Peter's Chamber Orchestra

[calimac]

So on Saturday I ventured up to Redwood City, and just around the corner from that infamous beer garden where the infamous iphone was infamously mislaid, I found a little taqueria that serves lamb tacos. mmmm, lamb. With lots of cilantro, of course.

Thus fortified, I walked across the arterial construction zone towards the reverberating concrete shoebox that serves as home to the St. Peter's Chamber Orchestra. And here is the product of my visit. For the second of two times that I've reviewed them, the artistic staff knew I was coming, but nobody'd told the volunteers who run the box office table. Oh well.

I was particularly pleased that Holst's Double Concerto was on the program. He's a one-work man who definitely doesn't deserve to be. This was a jolly piece to listen to, and even more fun to describe. I actually have an LP with this work on it, scarfed up with a lot of other obscure Holst on LP from a one-time classical LP store that specialized in British imports. I hadn't expected to encounter any of these things in concert. Next, A Somerset Rhapsody or the Beni Mora Suite, please?

I'd also heard the Salieri concerto for flute and oboe, but it wasn't easy to do so. The San Jose State library had an LP with it. Rather than check the LP out and lug it home, trying to keep it out of the sun, I'd figured on listening to it inhouse. But of the six listening stations, four had no power and one had a loud hum that drowned out the music. That left but one I could actually play the LP at. I dropped them a note: I know your maintenance budget is limited, but this is an excessive level of breakage.

The concert was a pleasure, actually, and as it was short, and started at 7:30 to boot, I was home early enough to write about it.

Comments

[eddyerrol.livejournal.com]

Even though Holst is apparently almost always remembered for the "Planets" suite, when I hear his name I instead always think of two of his pieces that I played in Symphonic Band in high school: the Miltary Band Suite in F, and the Military Band Suite in Eb. I have fond memories of both--fun to listen to, as well as being fun to play.

Ed Pierce

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

This reminds me, have you seen anything about the Garden of Memory solstice concert? Their web page hasn't been updated.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

All I know is what I read on the web. Maybe they're being slow; they may not have everything in place yet - it's still over a month - and even if they have, I've written before about the strange tendency of arts organization to not get around to updating their websites.

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that, and agreed - the Web is vital now.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

It's been updated now.