Count Basie
Theatre, Red Bank, Orchestra (Seat M106, $44).
Program
William Tell
Overture (1828-29) by Rossini (1792-1868).
Violin Concerto
in E minor, Op. 64 (1844) by Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
Symphony in D
Minor (1886-88) by Franck (1822-1890).
We got these
tickets at Amazon Local. Great seats for
$44 each. The program is a mix of a
popular first half followed by a more serious second half. I was looking towards it as Lacombe was the
conductor; and he has always come through in the past.
While the title
of William Tell is well-known, I actually don’t know the story, except Tell was
forced to hit an apple sitting on top of his head with his bow and arrow. I assume the good guys eventually
prevailed. Similarly, even though
several of the tunes in the overture are quite well-known (especially the Lone
Ranger theme,) I don’t even remember the last time I heard it live, or from a
recording for that matter.
It was a
delightful way to start the evening. The
overture was longer than I expected at over ten minutes, but it was an
enjoyable ten minutes. I am quite sure
it is not a technically or musically very difficult piece, but there is nothing
wrong with simply sitting back and enjoying the music.
I carry the same
attitude with the Mendelssohn violin concerto.
A diligent musicologist or composer may be able to do a detailed
analysis of its form, its significance, and how the work came into being. But for me it is just a brilliantly written
piece of music. Difficult enough to show
off a violinist’s skills, but not so difficult that it is beyond the reach of
all but the most virtuoso players.
Given our
proximity to the stage, everything sounded great. Shaham’s violin produced a perfect
sound. He still moved about the stage
quite a bit, infringing on the conductor’s and violinists’ space every now and then,
but that was not distracting at all. His
technique was flawless, and he just had a great give and take with the
orchestra. He attacked the piece
violently enough that I was wondering if the strings would hold up – they did.
Every now and
then I got the feeling that this was just a day at the office for him, and
there is nothing wrong with that. He
just had the piece down pat so the notes simply rolled from his fingers and the
bowing simply came naturally. These
soloists do a few concertos a year, so I am sure this piece got its share of
practice.
I know Franck
mostly from his ensemble works. Indeed
he wrote only one symphony. The Playbill
notes is a bit unkind to this work, other than saying the second movement is
the most successful, most of the commentary is devoted in how the symphony is
structured. The other oddity, so to
speak, is that this is a three-movement work: Lento – Allegro non troppo;
Allegretto; and Allegro non troppo.
Perhaps I was
influenced by the Playbill’s writeup, I found it hard to follow where the music
was going. On top of that, this was an
unexpectedly sloppy performance. At 37
minutes it isn’t particularly long, and I had no problem sitting through it,
but I had a lot of trouble following where the music is trying to go. As I type this review a few days later, I don’t
remember any of the themes used in the symphony.
Sometimes I don’t
understand how people pick the music for a particular program.
I was a bit worried that there would be many empty seats in the theater. While there were some, the attendance was still respectable. Sitting next to us was a father taking his son to his first concert. They left after the intermission.
Today was a relatively
busy Saturday. Anne came down with some
bug yesterday and wasn’t quite herself yet.
My day started with a drive to Hoboken where Ellie and Kuau ran in a 5K
race, and I had to watch Reid for all of 40 or so minutes. That turned out to be easier than expected as
the kid was asleep the whole time. I
also had a church meeting to attend from 3 to 6 pm, after which I drove home
and picked Anne up for the concert.
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