Cheesy Quintessence

Last night, as part of the requirements of my Music Appreciation class, my father and I attended the University of Texas University Orchestra in the Bates recital hall. Finding our way to the music building was a pain, especially since a road had apparently been renamed since the making of our map. When we finally found our way to the music building, we were in for a great show…

The concert started with the overture to La gazza ladra by Gioacchino Rossini. The most interesting aspect of this was the opening with a snare drum, which I thought seemed somewhat loud. After that, soprano singer Szu-Wen Wang sang the Italian words of “Caro nome” from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. The following piece, “Ain’t it a pretty night!” from Susannah by Carlisle Floyd, was sung by soprano singer Stephanie Clark.

During the intermission, the players started shuffling around; some left, some new ones came in. The most notable changes were the additions of a harp and a tuba. It was also during that break that we discovered that some people we know were there; we sat in their group for the rest of the show.

After the intermission, Symphony No. 1 by Vassili Kalinnikov was played in the G minor scale. This was the longest and, in my opinion, best part of the show. It consisted of four movements, Allegro moderato, Andante commodamente, Scherzo: Allegro non troppo – moderato assai, and Finale: Allegro moderato. The aforementioned harp played an interesting role of providing a diatonic theme. At the end of the symphony, the audience, which had luckily managed to refrain from clapping between movements, went quite wild with applause. They also took a lot of pictures, despite the prohibition of that activity.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the concert was the conductor, Adam Boyles; he was very energetic. In addition to his high level of energy, he had no music sheet in front of him. It’s a wonder how he could conduct the whole concert without any music to reference.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. I didn’t like the soprano singers, but they seemed skilled nonetheless. The whole orchestra of student musicians seemed very skilled, honestly.