Saturday was outdoor Christmas caroling in Greenwich Village, sponsored by the West Village Chorale, and hosted by Judson Memorial Church. When I ran errands on Saturday morning, it was snowy, but OK. As I ended errands, it was rainy and not OK. I decided to ditch it. Then I checked the weather online. Hmmm, fewer chances of rain. I braved it and got to the Village at noon. A couple of groups had already departed, but mine would be heading out shortly.
Group 3 did a bang-up job in Washington Square, along West 4th Street and Cornelia Street. We even went into a café for a subdued and pleasant rendition of Silent Night. At one point, we hooked up with another roving Group and formed a small choir for Silver Bells and one other song. Fun. Later, we strolled, singing the Twelve Days of Christmas—not the best choice. The Lords a Leaping weren’t quite in the same tempo as the Ladies Dancing. Somehow we all got together for Five Go-o-o-o-o-lden Rings! And somehow we all ended together. Along the way, we Came Upon a Midnight Clear, we Jingled, we Roasted Chestnuts, we Gloriaed, and we We Three Kinged, etc. I’m glad I overrode my veto!
Sunday had the prospect of going to the {gasp} Bronx for The Orchestra Now. Once again, I almost talked myself out of it but decided to take the plunge. I’m so glad I did.
Aladdin Suite – Oriental Festival March; Aladdin’s Dream and Dance of the Morning Mists; Hindu Dance; Chinese Dance; Prisoners’ Dance; Negro Dance (1918–1919) – Carl Nielsen (1865–1931)
Shéhérazade – Asie; La flûte enchantée; L’indifférent – (1903) – Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Scheherazade – The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship; The Legend of the Kalendar Prince; The Young Prince and the Young Princess; Festival at Baghdad—The Sea—The Shipwreck (1888) – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
All conducted by JoAnn Falletta
There was so much so cool about this concert. The Orchestra Now is a sort of training orchestra—to the best of my knowledge, all of the players are graduate students at Bard College. Actually, going back and re-reading the well-written program notes, it is “an innovative pre-professional orchestra and master’s degree program at Bard college … .” That means that this concert was free, but the ones they play at the Met Museum, Carnegie Hall, etc. are not.
This was a large orchestra, which was a good thing. Good in that you rarely hear an orchestration that includes two harps plus a celeste. And all three works had 22 violins … 5 French horns … 2 trombones plus a bass trombone … get it?—lots of instruments.
The Nielsen was great as a concert opener. The first movement was straightforward, while the second was calmer and slower, followed by a graceful dance section. The third movement was rather sinuous and included an extended winds-only section. The fourth movement was much brighter, with a quicker tempo while the fifth was much more dramatic, with a large brass presence, especially in the lower ranges. The final movement was rhythmic and very fast.
Both Scheherazades that followed were essentially a retelling of the 1,001 Arabian Nights fable (which also blended in well with Aladdin).The potentate/Caliph/grand pooh-bah was unhappy in love. His solution was to marry a virgin and then decapitate her after one night. Scheherazade decided to nip that in the bud. She married the aforementioned guy. On her wedding night, she wove an intriguing tale and spun it out until dawn, withholding the actual ending. Thus she lived to see another day. After 1,001 nights of this, the guy decided that she was a keeper.
The Ravel was a mini song cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Susan Platts was the very effective mezzo in the three-song cycle.
The Rimsky-Korsakov is somewhat of a warhorse that I think you’d recognize, but here it was played very well. I had a few minor quibbles with tempi and the cohesiveness of sections and movements, but these were very minor.
There were two excellent portions of the afternoon. Each piece was introduced by an orchestra member, who recounted some of what we could read in the program, written by other orchestra members. Additionally, there was an Orchestra Quick Guide (similar to a setup card for your laptop or tablet) that gave you titles of the works, dates of the composers, date of composition and premiere performance, and orchestration. Cool stuff. One of The Orchestra Now’s missions is to create a new audience for classical music and, specifically, classical music concerts. To that end, there was a group of students in the rows behind me whose teacher pointed out the Quick Guide to them and also pointed out that there was more detailed info in the printed program itself.
As is often the case, the students were quick to applaud after the first movement before realizing that most audiences take a work as a whole before offering applause. This is not a hard and fast rule, but one that is generally accepted and they caught on pretty quickly. They did, though, tend to chatter a bit while the orchestra was playing. It could be attention span or just not acknowledging the talent/work/discipline on display on the stage. I think it will come, but these were young teenagers who should have known better by now.
Throughout, the orchestra played very well. Unfortunately, with the hall only about one-third full, it was difficult to sustain applause, especially when Ms. Falletta wanted to acknowledge individual solo players (specifically in the Rimsky-Korsakov). It was even difficult to sustain the applause for the de rigeur second curtain call for Ms. Platt after the Ravel. Sometimes one acknowledgment from the audience is enough.
Would I go again? You bet I would. This performance was at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts at Lehman College (a new venue for me). The next two free Around Town concerts by The Orchestra Now will take place in Brooklyn and Queens. Woo-hoo! I go non-Manhattan-centric!
ConcertMeister
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