An Evening of Chamber Music with the NSO & Guests

The United Methodist Church hosted both Newark Symphony Orchestra players and members of the University of Delaware Opera Theatre department for an evening of chamber music and song. It was a lively evening of music and an excellent opportunity to get to know the musicians of the NSO and their guest performers up close.

NSO Conductor Emeritus Roman Pawlowski

The first piece was the very difficult Beethoven Trio in C Major, Opus 87 for two oboes and English horn. This work, as Maestro Tartaglione said in his introduction, is an early, classical work by Beethoven. The harmonies and style show a great deal of Mozartian influence, and the first oboe has the bulk of the unflinchingly tough technical demands which Elizabeth Stevens certainly met, even though she had to fight her reed a tad in the Adagio. Cathy MacIntyre’s English horn came through with great smoothness and jollity, which, together with the smooth oboe tones of Susan Ritter, made all four movements a pleasure to hear.

The Woodwind Quintet in A-flat major, Opus 14, a piece by Gustav Holst which had been unearthed in 1978, was a fun, romantic romp which Michelle Webb (clarinet) obviously relished. Jennifer Hugh had a great night with the fairly demanding bassoon part as she led the Bel Canto quintet through the lush and romantic canon. It was a great opportunity to hear Bonnie McDonald’s horn playing and the silver sounds of Crystal Norman’s flute.

The UD Opera Theatre performers had four short and breezy opera selections which flew by.  All were conducted by Ian Christopher Passmore and accompanied by Paul Fleckenstein. Standouts were singers Kameron Ghanavati, tenor and Jessica Williams, soprano. You can hear more of their singing in the May performances of Puccini’s La Bohème.

The concert was crowned by a wonderful performance of Roman Pawlowski’s arrangement of Victor Ewald’s brass quintet — a wildly difficult piece which Maestro Pawlowski arranged for fourteen brass players. Casey Hesse’s trumpet sounds were both subtle and virtuosic as she soloed in the lush Russian work for which the reverberant church was a great acoustic setting. Current Maestro Tartaglione conducted and recognized former conductor Roman Pawlowski’s dedication to the Newark Symphony Orchestra. The theme of the concert, A Gift from Roman, was in evidence in his superbly crafted arrangement.

See www.newarksymphony.org.

Local Writers Works' Featured in "Wicked" New Anthology

Avaricious, cruel, depraved, envious, mean-spirited, vengeful—the wicked have been with us since the beginnings of humankind. You might recognize them and you might not. But make no mistake. When someone wicked crosses your path, your life will never be the same. Do you know someone wicked? You will.

This is the introduction to the Written Remains Writers Guild's new book, entitled Someone Wicked: A Written Remains Anthology.  The 21 stories in this work, released by Smart Rhino Publications, were written by members of the Guild and their friends and were edited by JM Reinbold and Weldon Burge. 

Initial reviews have been quite positive:
[From Barnes & Noble...]
"In one word: AWESOME! Smart Rhino Publications has done it again with a wonderful collection of stories, all on the theme of wickedness. Suspense, mystery, thrills ... all here!” 

“There is a lot to love about this book. First off, the cover really grabbed my attention and that is saying something. So many books are being released these days with book covers that make you laugh or wince, but this one is great. Luckily the best part of it isn't just the cover. The stories in here are rich and diverse. There really is something for almost anyone..."   

[From Goodreads...]
“I've just finished this delightfully twisted anthology. This is my first exposure to the Written Remains Writers Guild, but certainly will not be my last. The stories in this collection all revolve around the theme of characters that commit wicked acts of some sort..."
The Written Remains Writers Guild was founded in 2009 by a group of Delaware writers who believe that greater literary excellence and career success can be best achieved by working together, sharing knowledge, skills, and resources. The Guild supports groups and events such as the Writers' Breakfast, Delaware Writer's Network, Open Mic Night at Newark Arts Alliance, and several workshops and classes for authors at all skill levels.

The paperback and Kindle versions are currently available on Amazon.

The British Arrived for a World Premiere with WCO

By Guest Blogger, Chuck Holdeman
Chuck is a regional composer of lyrical, contemporary classical music, including opera, orchestral music, songs, chamber music, music for film, and music for educational purposes. www.chuckholdeman.com.

On Sunday afternoon, March 23, the Wilmington Community Orchestra presented its The British Are Coming program at The Music School of Delaware in Wilmington. Its big splash was a World Premiere — a fairly rare experience for an amateur orchestra, the kind that plays for the love of it.  But indeed the composer is a professional: Dr. David Osbon, who had come from London to conduct his new work, a violin concerto written for local virtuoso Timothy Schwarz, also the orchestra's regular conductor.  Schwarz conducted the program's second half, which comprised most of the great British composer Sir Edward Elgar's masterpiece, The Enigma Variations.  Three variations were removed because of the enormous demands on rehearsal time to prepare the difficult violin concerto.

While the purpose of this blog is primarily to boost awareness of the rich artistic life of our community through reporting, there is also a side function — that of arts critic. This function is a traditional part of writing about the arts: Readers generally expect writers to offer an answer to, 'Well, how good was it?'  And that puts me in a tight spot because, in a word (six actually), I didn't like the new concerto.  At the same time, I am glad to report that many people did — many in the audience rose to their feet in appreciation, and there were many boisterous bravos!

Composer Osbon gave an extended, often humorous speech, along with conducting numerous excerpted examples of the music, to introduce his ambitious new work. He frequently used the descriptive word 'aggressive,' and indeed there was a lot of loud, high energy music. Even when calmer moments appeared, the composer seemed eager to return to the aggressive as soon as possible.  And the work was not a violin concerto in the usual sense, but rather an orchestral piece with many notes for the solo violin to play (some people say this about Stravinsky's violin concerto).  An exception was the virtuosic cadenza (violin alone) which featured swooping glissandi on one violin string while others sounded a gossamer background — an arresting novel effect. Still, the large quantity of fairly relentless rhythmic and tonal aggression in what is primarily a gestural compositional style was just not my cup of tea. (Perhaps I should also admit that I am not a fan of action movies.)  And I was reminded that I had a very similar reaction to a Philadelphia premiere, that of John Adams' City Noir with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic.  So, at least Osbon and the WCO are in good company, in terms of music I did not like!

I must credit Schwarz's skill and determination in the demanding solo part, and also credit the young percussion section, imported from the University of Delaware. The extensive and vigorous percussion writing had a unifying effect on the entire proceeding.

After intermission, The Enigma Variations were easier on the ears. The score is complicated, difficult in terms of both ensemble playing and playing in tune. Despite this, the conductor and orchestra communicated the music's tunefulness, harmonic richness, and great range of expression, from jauntiness to the sublime, especially in the ultra-romantic variation entitled Nimrod, which Elgar composed to honor his friend Jaeger. (Nimrod was a biblical hunter, and Jaeger is German for hunter.) Jaeger was the kind of friend (and Elgar's editor) who could convincingly say to the composer, 'keep going, keep writing,' even when Elgar was seriously assailed by doubts and discouragement.

Despite this mixed review, Schwarz, the orchestra, the Music School, and David Osbon are to be applauded for their ambition and dedication in presenting this program, which was plenty provocative. Osbon had visited and met the orchestra a year ago, and so his new concerto was a rigorous effort to feature the Wilmington Community Orchestra and its leader Timothy Schwarz.