The opening strains of Overture “Leonore” No. 3 Op. 72a by Ludwig Von Beethoven exemplify the sentiment in The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but with violins. The haunting first notes of this piece echoed throughout the Sydney Laurence Auditorium Friday night during The Anchorage Civic Orchestra’s Winter Concert. While the piece started with a palpable restraint, it soon broke into a light dance between violin and flute, which built to a lively movement as each instrument in the orchestra soon joined in. Conductor Tai Wai Li kept the orchestra’s pace perfectly, bringing in each instrument with equal precision and strength.
While the first piece set the tone for a night of solid masterpieces, the highlight of the concert was the performance of Eduard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21, 1 Allegro non troppo, by 14-year-old violinist, Eunice Kang. Her lively rendition bounced perfectly between the low and high notes played with obvious experience and a light hand. Ms. Kang’s impressive resume includes two second place finishes and one first place in the Music Teachers National Association’s junior strings state competition, (2007/2008, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, respectively), first chair in the Anchorage Junior Youth Symphony (2008/2009 and 2009/2010), and she is currently the assistant concert master in the Anchorage Youth Symphony. Anchorage will surely be hearing more from this high school freshman in the years ahead.
The concert ended on a beautiful note with Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op 68, by Johannes Brahms. This piece again showed Li’s masterful leadership of the ACO as they played through the four movements with obvious relish. This symphony, along with the other two works performed, belied the fact that the audience was enjoying music played by so-called non-professionals. The joy of music was evident throughout the evening, on the faces of each audience member and in the pleasure of a job well done by one of Anchorage’s lesser known classical gems, the Anchorage Civic Orchestra. Each piece of this concert was polished by the experienced players who appear to enjoy mastering even more difficult pieces than could be expected from even Anchorage’s professional orchestras. This may not have been Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, but it certainly brought a sense of ‘joy de vivre’ to concert goers that winter’s night.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. All comments are reviewed for content to ensure that dialogue is relevant to the purpose of this blog. Any inappropriate comments will not be approved for posting.