Tuesday March 21, 2006
Musicians' Forum
The New World Symphony gets plenty of lip service around here, and I’ve been thinking I need to start actually attending more of their concerts (particularly after Marc’s recent visit, which he sounded exited about).
The Musicians’ Forum sounded like casual, adventurous fun (and it’s one of New World Symphony’s free events), although it turned out to be less casual then expected. The musicianship was first-rate, of course, but the program was pretty long, varied, and excellent. The evening opened with a couple of duets (who knew that a pair of trombones could be fun to listen to?), followed by the only piece composed by a NWS affiliate, 28 year old Fellow (?) Piotr Szewczyk’s violin concerto. Accompanied by a 38 piece orchestra, Szewczyk was obviously exited premiering the piece. Though I’m not sure it lived up to whatever expectations may be cast by the “very new music” claim, the piece was brooding and dramatic, and an excellent vehicle for the violinist’s scorching playing.
After intermission, more trombones, this time as part of a brass quintet, followed by an early-20th century solo flute piece. Performed by Ebonee Thomas, it had the drifting quality of much of the music of that time (see Saite and Debussy), along with some super-fast passages that Thomas executed gracefully. Ravel’s Tzigane, a violin/piano duet, closed out the evening. Ravel uses beautiful passages which dissolve into frenzied, hyperfast runs, and some Reeves Gabriel-style extended technique, atonality, rapidly alternating picking and bowing, and general craziness. A total show-stopper (the performers, Boris Zelichenok and Ching Ming Cheng, seen above accepting ample applause from the audience). Wow.
Next stop: the Percussion Consort.
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Piotr is indeed a “fellow,” which is what they call us orchestra members – sort of like an intern, but with fewer unpleasant connotations. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your coverage, and the link to his website.
Anyone interested should check out the Percussion Consort on Sat. April 8th at 9 pm, featuring a rarely-heard masterpiece, Drumming by Steve Reich. Coming up this weekend at the Lincoln Theatre (Sat. 8 pm, Sun. 3 pm) and Broward Center (Mon. 8 pm) is a program of Viennese composers – Schubert, Mahler, and Webern – with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. And the next Musicians’ Forum is April 24th at 7 pm, with lots more general craziness (maybe something else by Piotr, too.)
Thanks for writing us up!
I wasn’t sure what a “Fellow” was, exactly, and the only page I could find refering to Piotr as such was in the Google cache, not on the NWS current site.
I’m a big Reich fan – i own the box set – so i’m looking forward to drumming. I also love the NWS’s approach to price structures, concerts, etc. The website is also very good (although curiously both the season brochure I picked up and the subscription brochure I remember seeing at the beginning of the season were pretty difficult to understand).
Keep bringing the good shit!
Forums are part of NWS’ community outreach program and a great opportunity for the musician/fellows to learn about the logistics of organizing and presenting a concert as well as to experiment with their creativity. In years past, they’ve done some amazing and also memorable, “crazy” shows. Well worth the free admission!
Oh, Alesh, forgot to add, they musicians are known as fellows (as in fellowship) because it is America’s Orchestral Academy. They are the cream of the crop, training to enter orchestras.