Looking back ...

October 27, 2012

Before our 2nd concert (November 4th) is upon us, I wanted to post a few parting comments on our season opener on September 30th.

Those of you who attended will recall, I'm sure, the exquisite French PASTORAL writing----- airy, delicate, wistful, joyous, somewhat sentimental--that was present in each of the works we played.





In the Carillon movement from Bizet's L'arlesienne  incidental music,
we worked on producing a gorgeous, "billowy" sort of string sound, so that
the main melody soared over the repeated BELL-ringing motif played by the
horns. Nothing too aggressive here, just lovely, plush "pastel" sound quality.

Next was the delightful Basque Rapsodie by Gabriel Pierne which, you may
recall, was also written for a stage production; this time, it was from the novel
RAMUNTCHO by Pierre Loti, the guy who wrote a story called "Madame
Chrysanthemum", which ultimately became a rather famous opera by another
composer.  But "Ramuntcho" tells of the escapades of the Basque region's most
famous smuggler and Pelote player....sort of a rural French/Spanish Jai-alai.

What really matters, of course, is the music, and the Basque Rapsodie seemed to
me, in some ways, the SURPRISE "HIT" of the afternoon.  Absolutely lovely music,
which our audience embraced immediately; I'm sure the composer would have been
thrilled. What's also amazing is the way in which the Northbrook Symphony typically
plays a totally obscure piece of music such as this---which no one had EVER heard
a single note of before our brief rehearsal period began---as authoritatively and
convincingly as if they have known it all their lives. 

AFTER INTERMISSION.....
the mighty SYMPHONY NO. 3 of Saint-Saens awaited us, a challenging and terrifically
rewarding work to play. Again, the orchestra outdid itself, with finely nuanced,
expressive playing, clean, precisely articulated rhythms in the scherzo movement and
plenty of big, brassy, declamatory power in the finale.

Perhaps the most rewarding for me was the CLARITY which we brought to this
work; it's easy to pound your way through it, like most orchestras do. But Saint-
Saens was, above all, a classical  thinker, who delighted in finely-crafted, meticulous
writing that requires very careful balancing, lest it become too thick and muddled.

It worked beautifully.

And how about those two pianos, playing their heavenly harp-like figuration during
the finale's radiant string chorale? My favorite passage in the work, which I learned
during my junior year at The Cleveland Institute, and have been waiting a LONG
time to perform!  

Incidentally, the keyboard part is supposed to be performed by two players on the
SAME piano ("piano, 4-hands" as it's known), but our big 9-foot Bösendorfer
has been in the shop all summer and wasn't ready for its close-up yet....so we
used two upright pianos instead. I liked them because they produced a slightly
"music-hall" type of sound......not entirely inappropriate for this work.

And let's not forget the fine artistry of Patricia Lee, our organist; Saint-Saens was
very judicious about his use of the organ in this work but Pat, who has played the
symphony several times, knew exactly how to gauge each entrance to produce the
maximum effect.

A thrilling, fun-to-perform concert...but enough for one day's work, thank you
(we also played through the entire concert at our 1pm dress rehearsal before
the performance!). Recovery time for me---about three days.


 NEXT-----
                        COUNTDOWN TO NOVEMBER 4th! 


Thank you for reading,
Larry R