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Part1: Live from Polovetsia, It’s Redwood Symphony!
The “Polovetsian Dances” drew me to Redwood Symphony’s most recent concert. I wasn’t disappointed. The orchestra clearly loves playing this piece, and no one seems to enjoy it more than the director, Eric Kujawsky. During this piece, the maestro handed over th podium to assistant director, Kirstin Link, and moved back to join the percussionists, at the cymbal stand. The look on his face, each time the music crested to meet those great bells, told the audience that he was immersed in the delicious bursts that reverberated when he closed his instrument in a burst of copper, red bronze, nickel silver and zinc alloy.
I also encountered a new, to me, favorite composer, Lee Actor in the rambunctious piece ”Dance Rhapsody”. My ear heard stories from different individuals, bustling, strolling and interacting in a variety of urban social patterns, in this modern work that combines waltz, tango and fandango rhythms. I’ll be looking for the Redwood Symphony take on this in iTunes.
I could make comments about every piece on the program, such as the lure of Peter Stahl on the English horn in Sibelius’ “The Swan of Tuanela”. Not only could I easily envision the swan craning her neck, but Peter’s music told me just the sensation I’m searching for, when I draw the air up from the base of my spine, past my larynx, into the upper reaches of my soft palette and beyond. That's just the feeling I’m reaching for to get the true flavor of the high G in that Alessandro Scarlatti aria I’m working on. First soprano tutorial , whodda’ thunk it?
But…. my very favorite bit of the concert came before the program began. It came, in fact, during the assemblage.
Tomorrow – Part 2: The Assemblage: Dawning of Music
