Not feeling like traipsing downtown porting your cooler? Based on my experience last night hearing young performers of The National Orchestra Institute under youngish Israeli conductor and brilliant pianist Ascher Fisch, a $20-ticket and the 20-minute drive to the University of Maryland performs in a beautiful hall, with impeccable acoustics and welcoming lobby space, with free parking thrown in is comfortable bargain. It was nifty to see a reduced orchestra accompany Fisch in Mozart's Piano Concerto # 17. What a great exercise to perform nearly without a conductor, as Fisch bobbed his head with rhythmic intensity to the orchestra all the while making the piano warble gracefully. And both the soloist and accompanists sparkled their way through the piece whose humor recall the contemporaneous Marriage of Figaro.
Mahler's "Tragic" 6th Symphony was another much more compendious story. For over an hour the stage was filled to capacity with enormous choirs of brass, woodwinds, percussion, strings, percussion and even two harps, the last mostly for decoration. Listening to this ungainly and disorganized work reminded me of being inside someone's stomach watching large mainly undigested familiar fragments trample by. The performers of course were enthusiastic, as was the audience, for some of what we heard was familiar from John Williams' shameless borrowings for the score of the first Star Wars film.
Based on my enjoyment at seeing and hearing these future professionals from all over the world, many of whom, like the first violinist, have already reached the mark, I have no problem recommending the NOI's next program, Saturday, June 29, 2013. 8PM:
Conductor Alan Pierson leads the National Festival Orchestra in a performance of:
- Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2
- Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9b (version for full orchestra)
- John Adams: Harmonielehre
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