Sunday, October 28
COUNTDOWN TO NOVEMBER 4th!
One week from today, Sunday, November 4th, our second concert will set a new standard for excitement and outright FUN at an NSO concert.
The program, entitled EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK FEST, features SEVEN (7) colorful and exciting works, which I will PREVIEW here, one-per-day.
1.) Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Jesters and Tumblers from The Maid of Orleans
OK-- so here's yet another totally unknown work, which I am using it to open the
concert. But believe me...when we finish this 4-minute musical riot, I guarantee
you'll want to hear it again.
About 20 years ago, I took a chance (as I often do) and bought an LP of unfamiliar
orchestral dances by Tchaikovsky, all written for his largely-obscure OPERAS.
The performance was by Colin Davis and the Covent Garden Opera Orchestra,
a high-quality production on the Phillips label. At the cut-out price of $3.99, what
could I lose?
Well...of the many unfamiliar dances on this album, ONE of THEM stood out
WAY, WAY above the rest.
It's a comic dance from Tchaikovsky's 1879 opera on the Joan of Arc legend.
Who knows what this dance has to do with the solemn tale of The Maid of
Orleans? It's obviously an interlude intended to satisfy the Parisian craze
for ballets in their operas.
No matter; I was determined to find and present this work when the opportunity
arose. So, after a lot of searching and frustrating attempts to identify this piece
with the publisher, I was able to rent it ESPECIALLY for this concert.
It is Tchaikovsky as robust, dashing, and NUTTY as you ever could have imagined,
and you will be the FIRST to hear it; the orchestra had a blast playing though it at
our first rehearsal last Monday. AND... it's just the opening work on a concert that
promises to leave you in a state of musical bliss.
Tomorrow's blog entry......the first of two beloved Bohemians on the program,
plus an introduction to a phenomenal young solo artist.
Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading,
Larry
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