Word: brassed
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...place for himself in the symphonic tradition: his Eighth Symphony, in G, was his first undeniably great shot at entering the pantheon. The materials are simple, but the orchestration is incredibly rich. As the performance went, there may have been a textual imbalance on the side of too much brass, but Susan Gim '01 played her flute part superbly, and there were plenty of opportunities for the strings to generate a beautiful sound. The solo by Concertmistress Jen Burney '99 was one of the best parts of the first movement and, incidentally, authored the most entertaining program note: "young Antonin...
...verve on display, leading a program of works that would have come to nothing without verve. The concert began with the overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute, a work with self-evident charm. Its first notes were jarring from lack of unison, but things picked up quickly. The brass enjoyed a fine moment, as did flutist Kimberly Arkin '98. The finale hinted loudly at the volume of sound the orchestra would transmit later in the evening...
...wonderfully reminiscent of Smetana and, except for a few more tuning concerns, captivated one's attention through to the coda. There were two excellent things about the fourth: the grand turn of the cellos and the terrifyingly loud sound of the symphony's last half-minute. Here the brass imbalance seemed plausible if not prudent. Everything, in fact, seemed that way. But the effect was titanically impressive...
...dominated by the churning lines of the strings, the quartet often moving in the same manner but isolated registrally. Added to this was the occasional punctuation and melodic quote announced by the remaining choirs of the orchestra, nearly always regulated to a marginal role. The percussion, and occasionally the brass, were often the sole indicators of points of arrival. The end of the first movement was announced with punctuation from the brass and suspendedcymbal rolls. The third movement was delineated by the use of tambourine, and likewise concluded with punctuation from the glockenspiel and brass...
Yannatos' treatment of melody seemed stratified between two extremes: the endless, flowing melodies of the quartet and strings, and the terse melodic fragments delivered by the remainder of the ensemble, particularly the glockenspiel and the brass. The program notes describe the use of a principal theme and motives from both Bach chorales and Beethoven Quartets op. 135 and 74. However, these melodic fragments, regardless of their origin, sounded only as quotes, isolated from the dominant texture. What was lacking was any real sense of interaction between these two melodic worlds. The program describes the principal theme as being part...