Massachusetts Wind Orchestra

It's been a good two days off. Relaxed, worked out, saw movies, played cards, cleaned room, wrote, and today I went and saw the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra at school.

God, I miss performing sometimes. And the Fine Arts Center is just so beautiful acoustically.

Lessee, impressions.

Too much fanfare and show.. it's really not necessary to stand for applause between every piece, and I dislike it when groups do.

The piccolo: Proving once again that an 87th ledger line D is not going to blend with anything.

I knew they'd be doing something Holst and something Vaughn Williams (which ended up being First Suite in Eb, and Tocatta Marziale, respectively) but it was a pleasant surprise to note Grainger's Irish Tune from County Derry and Shepherd's Hey also on the program.

Tocatta Marziale isn't my favorite piece ever, and it's certainly not my favorite piece with "Tocatta" in the name, but it was alright to hear.

The Holst was wonderful. The low brass for the opening of the Chaconne was chilling, and the clarinet and oboe solos in the Intermezzo were so nice. The trumpet intro to the March was energizing, and it was all very good.

I'm sure it sounded nothing like that when we played it, and I was interested to note that I still remember some of the clarinet lines, which I could finger along with in the air.

Shepherd's Hey was played lightning speed, to a point where it *almost* sounded out of control, and that was a touch odd, but it was still quite good.

However, the scene-stealer of the first half..

Warren Benson's "The Solitary Dancer" just totally blew me away. It's a kind of quiet energy, sort of dark, very..interrupted.. in that there are soloists and then breaks of almost nothing, and then everyone playing extreme pianissimo.. It was an amazing, amazing piece and performed excellently.

Expect it to be in one of my films, probably the dark photographer one.


Of the rest, there isn't much to say. It was all played quite well, I was very impressed overall. I was surprised at how man of them there were though... seemed like a very large wind group.
They did Hanson's Chorale and Alleluia, Bach's Fantasia in G Major, Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium and Husa's Music for Prague, of which the Aria is the nicest.

I don't really feel like getting into specifics and musical terminology for the pieces themselves, so I won't.

It was a good concert, worth way more than the $3 UMass student price I paid to get in, and you missed a good show if you weren't there. (And you weren't. And I'm mad at you.)



And now, it's only six, and I have several hours before heading off to bed leisurely and early.
This is the last full week before classes start. Haven Tuesday.

- Ln