The wind instruments and the percussion section were highlighted in this piece, but any good musician also depends on both the acoustics and the ‘sound guy’. Unfortunately, the production sound kicked off to a rough start, but in the phenomenal oboe solo the trills made everyone think of perfection, not the sound guy. Interestingly enough, where most composers would give the solo to the first violinist, Gershwin gave incredible solos to the brass and wind sections. The first song left the audience wanting to do the rumba, the original first name for the piece.
Lucas Richman took advantage of the casual atmosphere of Symphony on the Prairie to speak with the audience. When introducing On the Town, by Leonard Bernstein, Richman commented on his excitement to conduct pieces by “American composers who understood the theatricality of music.”
On the Town is a musical that tells the story of three American sailors granted a 24-hour leave in New York City. As the oboe kicks off the movement, it becomes apparent that the sound guy finally pulled through. The bassoon was used for the swanky theme of the song. It was easy to visualize the Navy in ‘the town’. On the Town’s main theme was thrown back and forth between all of the instruments. Bernstein uses sliding notes that paint a very exaggerated picture of a woman’s swaying hips and throaty trumpets allude to a lounge-type scene.
Bernstein also mimics city sounds and translates them to music. The audience is transported into Times Square, and Bernstein leaves you there.
In “Overture to Candide” from Bernstein’s opera, Candide, he preys upon extremes. Candide, which is known to most people as a book by Voltaire, does prey upon the French cancan. Offenbach, the composer that was made famous for his burlesque-type pieces, rang through in parts of Candide’s overture. The song whips from cancan type dance music into a sweetly passionate, yet campy melody that would transport most audience members to a beautiful romance filled with innocence and sunshine. As the melody grows, ISO shows it by their crescendos and deep bow strokes. Then the wind instruments lead into a full orchestra melody. The music begins to once again crescendo with a presto tempo.
The ending is short – and perfect.
Looking at the audience, I could tell that most came to hear the last half of the performance, the Dead Symphony which was written by Lee Johnson who took some of Grateful Dead’s long pieces, improved on them, and took the most famous songs and made it into a symphony. Lucas Richman appeared in the second half with a wardrobe change, a tie-dye shirt – which was very fitting for both the audience and the music.
The Dead Symphony intertwined each movement with the next. The xylophone was made a central figure in the symphony reappearing throughout many of the movements. The Grateful Dead era came into play as a cello rang deeply with the strings lingering on. The haunting xylophone mixed with the harpsichord gave dissonance a new meaning. Dissonance, traditionally used in classical music where it would could later be resolved, left the audience to try to resolve the chords themselves, which was a refreshing surprise. Some of the ‘dead heads’ clapped when a familiar melody took center stage, but some of the traditionally classical music buffs were overhead saying, “What is going on?”
Even though a full orchestra was at hand, for part of one of the movements Lee Johnson metaphorically removes all of the orchestra except for a traditional quartet who pass along a melody to one another. In the last movement, Lee Johnson gives a musical quote to John Phillip Sousa, perhaps to draw a bridge between classical American music and classic rock.
Saturday, June 20
Lucas Richman, Conductor
By Tory Flynn
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