DSO Closes Season on a High Note

By Christine Facciolo
Emotions ran high last week as the Delaware Symphony Orchestra closed its 2015-2016 season — The Season of the Bells — at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

Maestro David Amado conducted a program that offered just two works. But when one of those works features the gut wrenching emotionality of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, anything more would have felt like overload.

The concert opened with David Ludwig’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, with Bella Hristova as soloist. The semi-programmatic piece which was commissioned by an eight-orchestra consortium — including the DSO — celebrates Ludwig’s marriage to Hristova. Its three movements recount the wedding ritual (preparation, ceremony, celebration) within the broader themes of partnership, empathy and communion.

Ludwig invested the work with captivating moments and effects: asymmetrical rhythms, loping harmonies, ascending glissandi as well as unusual timbral combinations.

The work opens with a violin exclamation and everything a symphony orchestra can throw at it to signify transformative power of love and commitment before progressing to various Eastern-European style dances. The music builds to a brilliant raucousness, blending virtuosic cadenzas with warm lyricism.

The second movement opens with a tender melody in the solo violin that blossoms and grows joyful. This section serves as a touching tribute to the father Hristova never knew, Soviet-era composer Yuri Chichkov. Ludwig tracked down a rare copy of the violin concerto Chchkov wrote decades ago and incorporated an excerpt into this movement as a tribute to family.

Finally, the third movement “Festival” is as about as bacchanalian as a wedding reception can get. Bulgarian dances with their fluctuating rhythms run rampant, including Ludwig’s own version of the “Crooked Dance,” which mimics how the less-than-sure-footed revelers attempt to make their way home.

Hristova is one of today’s most celebrated artists with a superb technique and a sumptuous sound. Not surprisingly, she invested this performance with a sense of the whole, while balancing fiery virtuoso and deep passion with a sensitivity and softness.

Political passion consumed the second half of the program which featured Shostakovich’s massive Symphony No. 11, which premiered in 1957. The symphony is subtitled The Year 1905, a reference to the failed Russian revolution of that year. Critics initially dismissed the work as little more than glorified film music. Many now consider it to be more reflective in attitude, one that looks back on Russian history from the standpoint of 1957. Another interpretation views the symphony as a response to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the composer’s widow has stated that he did in fact “have it in mind” during its composition.

Lasting more than an hour, the symphony consists of four movements played without pause. Each movement bears a descriptive title relating to the revolution. The brooding first movement “The Palace Square” readily conveys the tension of the gathering workers, whose massacre is the subject of the feverish second movement “The 9th of January.” The third movement “In Memoriam” is deeply meditative while the finale, “The Tocsin,” sizzles with excitement.

Amado and the DSO performed this difficult piece with heart-wrenching emotion and cinematic sweep. The strings invested just the right amount of melancholy in the slow movements while the brass, winds and percussion brought drama and tension to the fast movements, especially the finale with its floor-shaking bass drum, crashing cymbals and tam-tam and cataclysmic tolling of the Bells of Remembrance.

It was a masterful rendition that kept the audience on the edges of their seats during the performance and brought them to their feet at its conclusion.

See www.delawaresymphony.org.

Jersey Boys – Oh What a Night!

Mary Ellen Hassett has lived and worked in Delaware since 1996 as a paralegal and attorney.  She and her husband Keith enjoy Wilmington arts and culture and devote a lot of volunteer time to Delaware Humane Association. 

The Playhouse on Rodney Square is closing out their Broadway season with Jersey Boys, a Tony Award–winning musical about four blue-collar kids from Newark, NJ.  This story is told thru the eyes of each of one of the four Jersey Boys from their perspectives at different times in their 40-year relationship. The talented group of musicians that starred in this rendition of Jersey Boys were amazing. This musical has it all – Jersey accents, mafia undertones, fantastic sets, a great storyline and lots of laughter. Whether old or young, this musical contains songs that everyone can enjoy. 

Jersey Boys is the story about Frankie Valli (that’s Valley with an “I” because everyone knows Italian names must end in a vowel). Frankie (Aaron De Jesus) with his unique voice is discovered at age 16 by Tommy DeVito (Matthew Dailey). As everyone knows, show business is not an easy road, especially in Jersey. Along the way – in addition to playing gigs on street corners, various bars, night clubs and bowling alleys – the group is involved in some rather nefarious activities and Tommy ends up in the slammer.    

While Tommy is away, Frankie and Nick Massi (Keith Hines) continue to perform. When Tommy returns, the group auditions young hotshot writer Bob Gaudio (Drew Seeley) and the Four Seasons is born! Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons are a smash, starring on the Ed Sullivan show and hitting the pop charts 40 times in the 1960s.  

However, Tommy could not leave his gambling Jersey ways behind and eventually found himself owing over $162,000 to the mafia and $500,000 in back taxes for the group. Tommy is bought out by the other three in the group and moves to Vegas. Nick leaves shortly thereafter and Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio continue as a duo – Bob writing and Frankie singing. Frankie and Bob to this day have never had a contract; they had a gentleman’s agreement – a handshake. The Four Seasons reunite a couple of times and they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.  

Although you have your traditional hidden orchestra, musical director Taylor Peckham, did a phenomenal job in moving the drummer(s) off and on state to enhance the night club scenes.

The musical arrangements of Walk Like a Man, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and Working My Way Back to You were just a few of the highlights. And my favorite of the night – December, 1963 (Oh What a Night) – as that basically sums up this fantastic performance!

I must say, The Playhouse saved the best for last! 

Jersey Boys will be playing at The Playhouse thru May 15. Wednesday and Thursday evening performances are at 7:30pm; Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8:00pm, and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm.  Ticket prices range from $50-$135 and discounts are available for groups of 10 or more.

See  www.ThePlayhouseDE.org. 

May Day Welcomed in Song with Four-Ensemble Concert at The Music School of Delaware

By Christine Facciolo

The Music School of Delaware’s Spring Choral Concert showcased the talents of four ensembles in an eclectic program at the school’s Wilmington Branch on Sunday, May 1, 2016 featuring music from church, folk and pop/rock traditions.

The Delaware Women's Chorus, led by Music Director Joanne Ward

The concert opened with five selections by Bella Voce, a 10-member choir consisting of students from Grades 2 though 8, under the direction of faculty member Marybeth Miller. If these young singers represent the future of music, we’re in good hands. The group showed its versatility with capable renderings of two Dominican folk songs, three nonsense ditties (Two Tongue Twisters and Antonio) as well as the Harry Belafonte-penned folk song Turn the World Around. Their set concluded with the traditional spiritual Twelve Gates into the City, which spotlighted their individual voices.

Next up was the recently formed Adult Jazz Choir which performs under the direction of Martin Lassman. Their segment opened with a sublime rendering of John Lennon’s In My Life — arguably the best pop song ever written. Sopranos Jackie Slavin and Kayla Holden and Bass Sam Parks offered capable solos. The group showed off its mastery of complex harmonies in a haunting delivery of The Meaning of the Blues, the much-recorded 1957 classic by Bobby Troup and Leah Worth. Soprano Slavin was joined in solo outings by Tenor Dennis Connor and Bass Robert Weiner. Individual members then showed off their improvisatory skills — including some respectable scat singing — in their segment closer Joe’s Place.

We then heard a uniquely organized program by The Delaware Women’s Chorus under the direction of Joanne Ward, chair of the school’s voice department. The group presented three sets of paired songs, each with a different take on a single concept. The first pairing — In Love/Not in Love — featured Arise, My Love and No Thank You, John. Motherhood got a turn with the nostalgic Music In My Mother’s House and Heartstrings, a musical rendering of a poignant conversation a mother has with her teen-aged daughter. Choir member Carolyn Becker provided the cello accompaniment.

The final pairing dealt with empowerment. In Lineage, a musical setting of Margaret Walker’s poem, the narrator compares herself unfavorably to the women of previous generations, while From Dusk to Dawn sings of the strength of Liberian protesting the civil war which engulfed their country until 2003. Soprano Ann Warren soloed.

We were then treated to a performance by Philadelphia-based a cappella group Vocal Motive, who appeared at the invitation of Ward. This 14-member mixed-voice ensemble under the direction of Doug Stuart was founded in 2012 by longtime friends seeking a return to the a cappella singing of their college years. The group is quickly gaining a following in the Philadelphia area with good reason: They love to sing and it shows.

The set the tone immediately with a rousing rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s foot-stomping Down on the Corner and kept the rhythm moving with Jason Mraz’s immensely successful I’m Yours. They showed their softer side with Billy Joel’s hymn-like And So It Goes, became contemplative with Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years, and evoked feelings of a distant time period with Barton Hollow/Bottom of the River.

They attempted to close things out with Queen’s gospel-tinged Somebody to Love. I say 'tried' because the audience came to its feet begging an encore which they supplied with a rendition of James Taylor’s poignant The Lonesome Road.

The Delaware Women's Chorus and the Adult Jazz Choir will hold auditions in the coming months for new members, by appointment, at the Music School's Wilmington Branch, located at 4101 Washington Street in Wilmington. Call 302.762.1132 to schedule. 

See www.musicschoolofdelaware.org.