The Orchestra Now (10/27/24)

Zachary Schwartzman, Conductor

Scherzo No. 1 (NY Premiere) – Herman Whitfield III (1982–2022)
Nocturnes – Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Nuages (Clouds); Fêtes (Festivals); Sirènes (Sirens)
Romeo & Juliet Suite – Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)

Herman Whitfield III's parents were at this performance, the NY premiere of their son's piece. Alas, young Mr. Whitfield died at the hands of police in 2022. The scherzo had tons of energy and was received well by the audience. Written when he was only 18 (he died at 39), we can only guess at what else he might have achieved.

I was familiar (via radio) with the three movements of the Debussy. This was my first live hearing of them. The English descriptions of the French movements are quite effective. Aye, though, there's the rub. While all three had aural washes of color, similar to Impressionism in painting, Debussy was never keen on using Impressionism to describe his compositions. That said, the description fit all three movements very well. And it was wonderful to hear two harps in the orchestra. My listening companion and I enjoyed the first half of the concert a lot, and discussed all four pieces during the intermission.

The Prokofiev was a mixed bag, as the composer of the ballet wrote three separate suites of music from the ballet. The eight movements we heard were culled from all three suites, so there was no cohesive programming that I could follow. My listening companion agreed with me. The first movement was very familiar to both of us—The Montagues and the Capulets. BUM-ba-dum-ba-DUM-ba-dum-ba. IYKYK. If not, search for it on YouTube. I bet you'll recognize it, too. The others were just too difficult to follow and suss out. That said, the playing was great, the concert was great, and we're looking forward to the spring concert.

A note about the orchestra—and you may remember this from other ConcertMeister posts—this is a training orchestra based at Bard college, that trains musicians in how to transition from college to actual working orchestras. Obviously, future auditions will feature heavily, but this gives them more hands-on training/experience than just playing in a college orchestra does. They learn about home space programming, but they also learn about playing in other major venues—Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, etc.—something that I never learned in college.

All in all, a great concert.

ConcertMeister