Word: bassoons
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...Radcliffe Orchestra's concert last Friday night clearly wasn't looking for crowd-pleasers; there wasn't a Beethoven symphony or Mozart concerto to be found in Sanders Theater. Instead, the orchestra gamely offered up a trancelike Wagner overture, a defiantly modernist Stravinsky ballet and--strangest of all--a bassoon concerto. While Wagner and Stravinsky are hardly obscure, it's not every day that you get to hear the bassoon--an instrument that ranks with the tuba and bass in ungainliness--dominate the stage...
...evening's centerpiece was Carl Maria von Weber's Bassoon Concerto in F Major, a piece which even the concert program admitted "lacks something in originality." At best, the concerto is lively and clever, taking advantage of the bassoon's peculiar, step-like dexterity; the third movement's themes are almost jolly. But at other times it's hard to tell whether the composer intended what sound like humorous effects; the second movement's creeping themes were reminiscent of the Pink Panther's sly theme song. Similarly, the soloist's first entries in the first movement are preceded by total...
Soloist Shoshana "Shasa" Dobrow '97 won HRO's Concerto Competition with the piece and it must be a godsend for a bassoonist--there's not much opportunity to shine with the instrument. Probably the best-known bassoon writing is Stravinsky's, such as the solo that begins "The Rite of Spring;" but Stravinsky produces a plaintive, wailing tone which is far from Weber's classical vocabulary...
Certainly, Dobrow handled the piece expertly and her tone improved as it went on--or, perhaps, the ear became accustomed to what the bassoon should sound like. But she was hampered by a fairly uninteresting piece and her technique was probably better appreciated by those more familiar with the instrument and its limitations. Again, however, the audience was wildly appreciative, as the fluorescent "SHASA" sign that dangled from the balcony proved...
...Bassoon Concerto was preceded by Wagner's Tannhauser overture, a taste of lush orchestral beauty about as far as you can get from Stravinsky's astringent, polyrhythmic ballet. This piece showed the archromantic composer in full bloom, retelling the legend of Venus and Tannhauser in a series of exquisite themes and shimmering orchestral textures. The string section shone in the controlled chaos of Wagner's glistening chromaticism. Student conductor Brian Koh matched the music's passion blow for blow, his emphatic gestures turning almost violent by the end of the overture...