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Chamber Orchestra's two Randalls
Tom Purdom
A tale of two Randalls
TOM PURDOM
What does it take to play Mozart properly? For many people, the essential ingredient is a full understanding of the musical structure. For me, it’s always been something more ephemeral. The performers must embellish that formal structure with an appropriate emotion or a dash of personal style. Randall Fleischer, the guest conductor at the Chamber Orchestra’s latest outing, satisfied that requirement by filling Mozart’s framework with energy and good-humored zest.
In his opening remarks, Fleischer told the audience that he’d been given the program when he was invited to conduct. He had never previously conducted the first symphony on the program and, in fact, had never even heard it played.
Fleischer clearly enjoyed making the acquaintance. He started Mozart’s 28th with a first movement that resembled a bustling operatic overture—with an overture’s promise of things to come— and kept up the pace all the way to the end.
Fleischer’s energy and sense of fun really came through in the evening’s finale, Mozart’s 36th, the “Linz.” Fleischer hit the big trumpet and drum bits with the good humor of a kid playing soldier. The last movement ended the evening with a big, exuberant finish that would have made Beethoven proud.
In between these two symphonies, Randall Scarlata sang two song cycles for voice and orchestra. Ravel’s Three Poems by Stéphane Mallarmé is scored for a small chamber ensemble, dominated by woodwinds, which mostly adds instrumental color to the vocal line. Stravinsky’s Two Poems by Paul Verlaine employs a full chamber orchestra and includes one of the most famous French poems ever written, Verlaine’s The White Moon.
Scarlata is a first-class lieder singer, with a flexible, unstrained voice that always sounds good. He’s also the kind of performer who can joke about the depression in the Stravinsky piece when he’s describing it to the audience, and follow the joking with an effective dead-serious musical presentation.
In the wrong hands, this could have been a so-so event. None of the pieces on the program could be considered major attractions. Scarlata and Fleischer turned it into one of the most enjoyable Chamber Orchestra concerts I’ve attended.
To read responses, click here.
TOM PURDOM
What does it take to play Mozart properly? For many people, the essential ingredient is a full understanding of the musical structure. For me, it’s always been something more ephemeral. The performers must embellish that formal structure with an appropriate emotion or a dash of personal style. Randall Fleischer, the guest conductor at the Chamber Orchestra’s latest outing, satisfied that requirement by filling Mozart’s framework with energy and good-humored zest.
In his opening remarks, Fleischer told the audience that he’d been given the program when he was invited to conduct. He had never previously conducted the first symphony on the program and, in fact, had never even heard it played.
Fleischer clearly enjoyed making the acquaintance. He started Mozart’s 28th with a first movement that resembled a bustling operatic overture—with an overture’s promise of things to come— and kept up the pace all the way to the end.
Fleischer’s energy and sense of fun really came through in the evening’s finale, Mozart’s 36th, the “Linz.” Fleischer hit the big trumpet and drum bits with the good humor of a kid playing soldier. The last movement ended the evening with a big, exuberant finish that would have made Beethoven proud.
In between these two symphonies, Randall Scarlata sang two song cycles for voice and orchestra. Ravel’s Three Poems by Stéphane Mallarmé is scored for a small chamber ensemble, dominated by woodwinds, which mostly adds instrumental color to the vocal line. Stravinsky’s Two Poems by Paul Verlaine employs a full chamber orchestra and includes one of the most famous French poems ever written, Verlaine’s The White Moon.
Scarlata is a first-class lieder singer, with a flexible, unstrained voice that always sounds good. He’s also the kind of performer who can joke about the depression in the Stravinsky piece when he’s describing it to the audience, and follow the joking with an effective dead-serious musical presentation.
In the wrong hands, this could have been a so-so event. None of the pieces on the program could be considered major attractions. Scarlata and Fleischer turned it into one of the most enjoyable Chamber Orchestra concerts I’ve attended.
To read responses, click here.
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