About

The Music Symphony orchestras performance are tended to be thought as units. We easily recall the brilliant individual talent sitting amid the cellos or emerging for those brief woodwind solos in the evening’s symphony. The American Symphony Orchestras offer a vibrant reminder of just how good the players can be, showing their music virtuosity nightly at various Symphony Centers. However the orchestra’s regular subscription season usualy doesn’t begin until Thursday, but Saturday’s concerts whett the appetite for good things to come.

These are for example Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion and String Orchestra Symphony by Swiss composer Frank Martin which serve as a calling card for several of the Orchestra’s newer principal players. Still distinguished veterans are on hand, of course, among them clarinetist Larry Combs, trumpeter Adolph Herseth, trombonist Jay Friedman and timpanist Donald Koss, all principals, along with Daniel Gingrich on horn.

Vibrant color and effortless technical control suffuse the performance. Theose of concerto that are composed earlier than in 1949 are full of robust rhythms and hints of dissonance that add spice to their often genial lyricism. Th lyrics are felt everywhere. Soloists move in and out of the spotlight seamlessly, passing musical lyric ideas back and forth with the ease and spontaneity of intimate friends.

Syphony Orchestras’ audiences allways have a brief encounter with considerable gifts at this season. The gift that deserves a mention is an orchestra performance of Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.” The tone is so warm and penetrating that the tenderly lyric shine of music flows upon the listener. It is coupled with bright sweetness in the upper range and a mysterious, smoky quality in the lower register. A superb addition to the orchestra winds - that’s what it is, sounding exceptionally rich since Orchestra Hall’s acoustical revamping.

The concert closing is to be packed with excitement and sweeping melody - for example with Schumann’s Second Symphony.