Eric Lindholms Triumph!

 Eric Lindholm really scored in this concert on November 21 at 3:00 pm! When he was doing the Overture to the Barber of Seville he grasps at the violins, floated through the Saxophones, took umbrage with the trombones. In short, he did a masterful job with this orchestra! The composer for this first piece was Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868).

The piece for the second number was the from Sibelius:  Suit from the incidental music to Swanwhite (1909). The Hymn of praise was was perfect and had a roar to it in the final stages, which could be heard throughout Little Bridges!

Now we get to Symphony No. 3,  by Brahms (1833-1897). We go just to III, the Poco allegretto. I am going to rely on the program because it give us much new material. In particular, "it has been featured in films starring Katharine Hepburn (Undercurrent)..." I made my way to this 1946 film on Prime. When Katherine Hepburn's father plays the Brahms at the beginning of the movie, it is wonderful!

Of course it is played on a piano,  so the whole score, including violins, trombones, and saxophone depend upon Herbert Stothart for conversion to the piano. He also arranges the music for the signature piece, including the trombones, and saxophones, in the piece for orchestra, which is quite Brahms-ian!

I guess I should say we have two entities, the Brahms 3rd Symphony (the Poco allegretto, in particular) and the Stothart film score. The film score is based on the symphony, but is like a symphony in that it goes everywhere and anyplace! The two entities are different!

Now to the last piece, the Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21 (1800) by Beethoven. The conducting, by Lindholm, was masterful, but I want to let the program to be the final word: his "nine symphonies establishes new ground and is wholly different from the others. The Symphony No. 1 is a necessary link between what came before and what would follow."

Review of Fête Musicale, October 30, 2021 at 12 pm

 Pomona College had a "Fête Musicale" the other day. It was at 12 pm in the Hall of Music (Little Bridges) on the 30th of October, a Saturday. I wanted to see what a "Fête Musicale" was!   

It turned out that it was four "Tableau" each separated by a fifteen to twenty minute intermission by mostly senior persons of Pomona College Music Faculty.

My impression of the whole thing was each tableau would introduce a bassoonist, Carolyn Beck, a flutist, Rachel Rudich, a tuba player, Steven Klein, and someone who played the oboe, Francisco Castillo, to do a Benjamin Britton number and to introduce "Controverias" a "world premiere" number. These were each in their respective "Tableau" number.

The bassoonist, Carolyn Beck, played May I have this dance? Happy Birthday Walz (2021) which was a great bassoon piece. Then she played Zinfandel (2010), which was more meandering. It was based on Zinfandel wine. I really liked it.

Rachel Rudich was joined in her presentation of Paronyms by Karl Kohn, by Gayle Blankenburg, piano, for which she got concert status! Rachel played two flutes, a bass flute and one for regular flute. I liked the bass flute best.

Steven Klein, on tuba, played with Gayle Blankenburg again. He played Concerto, by Robert Spillman. It was a deep, rich sound! And the harmonics of Little Bridges were great!

Francisco Castillo played Six Metamorphoses After Ovid (1951) and covered Pan, Phaeton, Niobe, Bacchus, Narcissis, and Arethusa. Narcissis, who fell in love with his own image and became a flower!  I liked the Britton piece because it was varied. The world premiere piece was less thrilling, although more advanced. He put seven stands of music all across the stage and then he sat in each seat until the seventh one came up!