Wednesday, Nov. 23 2011 10:01AM
LS Symphony Orchestra opens season with Fall Classic
By Gary Fruits, guest columnist
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ReprintThe Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra opened its ninth season in dramatic fashion with a concert dedicated to classical music from three outstanding composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Geroges Bizet and Gustav Mahler.
Obviously, patrons of the Lee’s Symphony expect to hear excellent performances by the string sections of the Symphony. However, to our great surprise, we were favored with many passages featuring the woodwind sections, brass sections, the lower brass section and percussion. Simply put: It was a grand performance. What a way to open the ninth season!
Mozart’s “Overture to Don Giovanni” opened the Fall Classic concert. Among the highlights, this piece featured the trombone section playing resonating chords and repeating them three times in the opening Andante and at the close of the second act. During the performance, the violin section produced sensitive modulations and euphonious harmonies, accompanied by the muffled roll of drums. An outstanding opening piece.
Geroges Bizet’s opera, Carmen Suite No. 1 featured many passages familiar to patrons as performed in various movies, children’s cartoons and theatre plays. Many orchestral settings were, as a matter of fact, extracted from the opera’s most famous passages. The various movements to this piece were bold and raucous, featuring the lower brass, horns and percussion sections, contrasting with the light, delicate passages, played so musically by the strings.
The second portion of the concert featured Symphony No. 1 in D Major by Gustav Mahler. The four movements exhibited a wide array of emotions from jubilation, love, and laughter, to anger, sadness and feelings of great triumph. This piece featured every section of the symphony and was written to describe a strong, heroic man – his life, sufferings, battles, and defeat – at the hands of fate. The opening of the third movement featured Dr. Brian Casement, principal bassist, artistically playing a double bass solo, a variation on the theme “Frere Jacques.” Indeed, the musicians were asked to accept and conquer great challenges in the various movements of Symphony No. 1 in D Major. Not only did they accept and conquer those challenges, they produced a beautiful concert piece that drew thunderous applause and cheers from the patrons.
If you missed this concert, you missed an outstanding performance that was a showcase of the high quality of our conductor, Russell E. Berlin Jr., and our very talented musicians. It was a very significant indication of the overall quality of the Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra.
The next performances of the Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra are the Holiday Magic concerts at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., Dec. 10. This is always a very enjoyable concert that gets patrons in a holiday spirit.
“Experience the Sound!”
