Anchorage Symphony's Opening Night
by Terradawn Laughton - West Anchorage High School
The diverse program of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra’s Opening Night on Saturday, October 24th deserved much awe and celebration. The symphony began with Verdi’s Overture to I Vespri Siciliani, successfully played from its delicate, percussive beginning to its bombastic finale.
It set the stage for the next piece, to feature world class PercaDu, an Israeli percussion duo. As the Atwood’s orchestra pit rose, we stared in disbelief at the array of percussion instruments to be played by only two men. Up came two marimbas, a vibraphone, drum sets, saw blades, and various cymbals and bells. And yet through Avner Dorman’s Spices, Perfumes, and Toxins! Tomer Yariv and Adi Morag traveled between instruments with spirit, grace, and speed. But even more impressive than their rendition of Spices, Perfumes, and Toxins! was PercaDu’s second (yes, second) encore. They played a piece called Flight of the Bumblebee: a lightning fast battle featuring both percussionists on a single marimba, as they circled around the instrument and crisscrossed each other’s mallets without ever missing a stroke.
After intermission, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra achieved one of the chief characteristics of romantic music, expressing the powerful emotions of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor. They provided a faithful rendition of his image-provoking symphony, with precise pizzicato and a well-played cymbal explosion in the fourth movement, a finale that beats all records for the number of cymbal crashes per minute. It was an Anchorage Symphony Orchestra evening to be remembered, exciting us all for the season to come!
Opening Night
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
October 24, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Atwood Concert Hall
