Shreveport Symphony Press Releases
(November 17, 2008)
A Joint Statement from the Shreveport Symphony and
American Federation of Musicians.
(pdf)
(October 24, 2008)
A Joint Statement from the Shreveport Symphony and
American Federation of Musicians.
(pdf)
(October 15, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Regretfully Cancels October 18, 2008 Opening Concert. Please click here for details.
(pdf)
(July 10, 2008)
Copy of Musician Agreement
(pdf)
(May 1, 2008)
"Final Report - Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Business Plan Development"
(pdf)
(April 10, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Orchestra presents
Capital One Music Memory Final Competition (pdf)
(March 28, 2008)
A Statement from the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 20, 2008)
Statement from Margaret Elrod, President, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 17, 2008)
Statement from Margaret Elrod, President, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 14, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Invites Musicians and Community to Embrace Board's Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility (pdf)
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
September 17, 2006
by Alexandyr Kent, The Times
akent@gannett.com
Was the music hot in the Riverview Theatre last night, or was it just me?
With the Marcus Roberts Trio as its guest, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra started its 59th season with vigor and three standing ovations. If the "Gershwin on Fire" concert is any indication, ushers should pass out bottles of water with the programs for the rest of the year.
Let's skip ahead to the great stuff for a moment, shall we?
The nearly full house will not soon forget the second piece on the program: the trio's re-imagining of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. As was demonstrated last night, the piece has been re-energized by pianist Marcus Roberts and his cohorts, drummer Jason Marsalis and upright acoustic bassist Roland Guerin. It sounded so new, in fact, that the audience decided to offer a lengthy standing ovation between the second and third movements.
The performance was highlighted by Robert's imagination and virtuosity. He has essentially taken the Gershwin piece, which in its original form sounds like a French theme for Tin Pan Alley, and infused it with jazz and more rhythmic variation and melodic sensuality.
Marsalis and Guerin gave the work an intoxicating pulse, helping to guide the orchestra into a stirring performance.
It was an thoroughly exhausting piece to listen, but that didn't stop the audience from standing up for a second time. Shouts of approval coming from my neck of theater were loud, and included "How good was that?", "Oh, my goodness!", and "It's been so long since I've heard good jazz!" Ditto.
Conductor and music director Michael Butterman gambled by featuring a trio that reinterprets a classic from a favorite American composer. As suggested by the genuine buzz during intermission, the successful risk-taking should pay off in more ticket sales.
Lest we forget, Butterman told the audience that other pieces on the program were about rebellious spirits, too.
The night opened with Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." While playing got off to a loose start, the orchestra tightened up for a powerful middle and end. Jazz influences were punched up with Cuban and Latin American rhythms, using bongos and claves to make the melodies sound more playful and, to me, drunkenly beautiful. Every time I hear it, the martini shaker in my mind offers suggestions I really shouldn't indulge. (At least not on deadline.)
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and its finale, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber." Like Gershwin, these two composers are taking other styles of music and themes and painting them with new colors. The orchestra's results were soothing with Brahms and invigorating with Hindemith.
With Marcus Roberts as its sterling example, the "Gershwin on Fire" concert proved that old beauty can be altered and made new. Most symphony-goers, who ended the night with its last standing ovation, seemed to approve.
Symphony puts a rousing end to the season
Lane Crockett - Forum Magazine
The Shreveport Symphony couldn’t have planned a better ending to the 2005-2006 season than the one it offered May 13 at the Shreveport Civic Theater.
You not only got passionate Russian composers, but two pianists of the gold medal variety. Guest artists for the program were the co-winners of the 2005 Nena Plant Wideman Piano Competition, Tatiana Mitchko Tessman from Russia and Ji Yeon Shin from South Korea.
For an extra bonus, resident conductor and concertmaster, Kermit Poling, and the orchestra outdid themselves on a stunning concert that was satisfying and thrilling. You want to do that because it makes patrons and prospective patrons ready for the next season. You know, leave them wanting more.
Opening the concert was Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” One hates to use the description, but the piece was sprightly and wonderfully played by the symphony. Sprightly somehow doesn’t seem compatible with Shostakovich, but it is apt in this case. It’s a tight, energetic overture that was tightly and energetically played by the musicians under Poling’s baton.
You had to marvel at the ochestra’s balance on this piece. If the musicians could play as a unit, then they did on this one. It was an exciting kick off for the program. The symphony should do more Shostakovich. They do him well.
Next was Peter Tchaikovsky’s grandly dramatic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1” that has a hallowed history for longtime Shreveport symphony patrons. Van Cliburn, a native Shreveporter, stunned the world and won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, held in Moscow, in 1958. That even won him a ticker tape parade in New York City and made Americans very aware of this piece.
At the piano this this time was Tessman, who, one might say, played the heck out of it. She is a strong, decisive pianist and moved through this flamboyant concerto without hesitation. If there was anything clichéd about this oft-played composition, Tessman bypassed it, offering a fresh, thrilling interpretation that had the audience on its feet.
The pianist took charge and was solidly supported by Poling and the musicians. In fact, Poling did an excellent job in coordinating with her. Tessman can go from the big, dramatic sound to the softly lyrical, which this piece demands. She illustrated that further by offering a short encore of a principal theme from the ballet of “ Swan Lake,” also by Tchaikovsky. Sans orchestra, she displayed her skill in creating and developing the loveliness of this theme.
After intermission came Shin’s time, and she equaled Tessman’s bravura on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s well-loved and beautiful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” If you are a true movie buff, you would have recognized the number’s principal theme as the theme from 1953’s “The Story of Three Loves.”
In ways, the Rachmaninoff is more technically challenging than the Tchaikovsky, but then Rachmaninoff was a pianist and Tchaikovsky wasn’t. On this piece, there is cross-hand playing, abrupt tempo shifts and an emotional range all over the place. Shin rode the number with aplomb, being big and demanding when necessary and then quiet and introspective. She, too, had the audience on its feet. When she tore into the primary theme, you could feel chills up your spine.
Ending the concert was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov’s lilting and often fiery “Capriccio Espangol.” This could have been anticlimactic after the pianists, but Poling didn’t let it be. He and the orchestra took the listeners on a ride – lots of wonderful percussion work – and finished off the piece on a high, resounding note. On this number, several of the orchestra’s players were highlighted but mention should be made of principal clarinet, Thomas Phillips, and principal French horn player, Thomas Hundemer, who both stood out on the Shostakovich, too.
It was a great season ending, and the orchestra is set up for next season. Start renewing now because this symphony is too good not to.
Shreveport Symphony Press Releases
(November 17, 2008)
A Joint Statement from the Shreveport Symphony and
American Federation of Musicians.
(pdf)
(October 24, 2008)
A Joint Statement from the Shreveport Symphony and
American Federation of Musicians.
(pdf)
(October 15, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Regretfully Cancels October 18, 2008 Opening Concert. Please click here for details.
(pdf)
(July 10, 2008)
Copy of Musician Agreement
(pdf)
(May 1, 2008)
"Final Report - Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Business Plan Development"
(pdf)
(April 10, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Orchestra presents
Capital One Music Memory Final Competition (pdf)
(March 28, 2008)
A Statement from the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 20, 2008)
Statement from Margaret Elrod, President, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 17, 2008)
Statement from Margaret Elrod, President, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Board (pdf)
(March 14, 2008)
Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Invites Musicians and Community to Embrace Board's Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility (pdf)
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
September 17, 2006
by Alexandyr Kent, The Times
akent@gannett.com
Was the music hot in the Riverview Theatre last night, or was it just me?
With the Marcus Roberts Trio as its guest, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra started its 59th season with vigor and three standing ovations. If the "Gershwin on Fire" concert is any indication, ushers should pass out bottles of water with the programs for the rest of the year.
Let's skip ahead to the great stuff for a moment, shall we?
The nearly full house will not soon forget the second piece on the program: the trio's re-imagining of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. As was demonstrated last night, the piece has been re-energized by pianist Marcus Roberts and his cohorts, drummer Jason Marsalis and upright acoustic bassist Roland Guerin. It sounded so new, in fact, that the audience decided to offer a lengthy standing ovation between the second and third movements.
The performance was highlighted by Robert's imagination and virtuosity. He has essentially taken the Gershwin piece, which in its original form sounds like a French theme for Tin Pan Alley, and infused it with jazz and more rhythmic variation and melodic sensuality.
Marsalis and Guerin gave the work an intoxicating pulse, helping to guide the orchestra into a stirring performance.
It was an thoroughly exhausting piece to listen, but that didn't stop the audience from standing up for a second time. Shouts of approval coming from my neck of theater were loud, and included "How good was that?", "Oh, my goodness!", and "It's been so long since I've heard good jazz!" Ditto.
Conductor and music director Michael Butterman gambled by featuring a trio that reinterprets a classic from a favorite American composer. As suggested by the genuine buzz during intermission, the successful risk-taking should pay off in more ticket sales.
Lest we forget, Butterman told the audience that other pieces on the program were about rebellious spirits, too.
The night opened with Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." While playing got off to a loose start, the orchestra tightened up for a powerful middle and end. Jazz influences were punched up with Cuban and Latin American rhythms, using bongos and claves to make the melodies sound more playful and, to me, drunkenly beautiful. Every time I hear it, the martini shaker in my mind offers suggestions I really shouldn't indulge. (At least not on deadline.)
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and its finale, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber." Like Gershwin, these two composers are taking other styles of music and themes and painting them with new colors. The orchestra's results were soothing with Brahms and invigorating with Hindemith.
With Marcus Roberts as its sterling example, the "Gershwin on Fire" concert proved that old beauty can be altered and made new. Most symphony-goers, who ended the night with its last standing ovation, seemed to approve.
Symphony puts a rousing end to the season
Lane Crockett - Forum Magazine
The Shreveport Symphony couldn’t have planned a better ending to the 2005-2006 season than the one it offered May 13 at the Shreveport Civic Theater.
You not only got passionate Russian composers, but two pianists of the gold medal variety. Guest artists for the program were the co-winners of the 2005 Nena Plant Wideman Piano Competition, Tatiana Mitchko Tessman from Russia and Ji Yeon Shin from South Korea.
For an extra bonus, resident conductor and concertmaster, Kermit Poling, and the orchestra outdid themselves on a stunning concert that was satisfying and thrilling. You want to do that because it makes patrons and prospective patrons ready for the next season. You know, leave them wanting more.
Opening the concert was Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” One hates to use the description, but the piece was sprightly and wonderfully played by the symphony. Sprightly somehow doesn’t seem compatible with Shostakovich, but it is apt in this case. It’s a tight, energetic overture that was tightly and energetically played by the musicians under Poling’s baton.
You had to marvel at the ochestra’s balance on this piece. If the musicians could play as a unit, then they did on this one. It was an exciting kick off for the program. The symphony should do more Shostakovich. They do him well.
Next was Peter Tchaikovsky’s grandly dramatic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1” that has a hallowed history for longtime Shreveport symphony patrons. Van Cliburn, a native Shreveporter, stunned the world and won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, held in Moscow, in 1958. That even won him a ticker tape parade in New York City and made Americans very aware of this piece.
At the piano this this time was Tessman, who, one might say, played the heck out of it. She is a strong, decisive pianist and moved through this flamboyant concerto without hesitation. If there was anything clichéd about this oft-played composition, Tessman bypassed it, offering a fresh, thrilling interpretation that had the audience on its feet.
The pianist took charge and was solidly supported by Poling and the musicians. In fact, Poling did an excellent job in coordinating with her. Tessman can go from the big, dramatic sound to the softly lyrical, which this piece demands. She illustrated that further by offering a short encore of a principal theme from the ballet of “ Swan Lake,” also by Tchaikovsky. Sans orchestra, she displayed her skill in creating and developing the loveliness of this theme.
After intermission came Shin’s time, and she equaled Tessman’s bravura on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s well-loved and beautiful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” If you are a true movie buff, you would have recognized the number’s principal theme as the theme from 1953’s “The Story of Three Loves.”
In ways, the Rachmaninoff is more technically challenging than the Tchaikovsky, but then Rachmaninoff was a pianist and Tchaikovsky wasn’t. On this piece, there is cross-hand playing, abrupt tempo shifts and an emotional range all over the place. Shin rode the number with aplomb, being big and demanding when necessary and then quiet and introspective. She, too, had the audience on its feet. When she tore into the primary theme, you could feel chills up your spine.
Ending the concert was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov’s lilting and often fiery “Capriccio Espangol.” This could have been anticlimactic after the pianists, but Poling didn’t let it be. He and the orchestra took the listeners on a ride – lots of wonderful percussion work – and finished off the piece on a high, resounding note. On this number, several of the orchestra’s players were highlighted but mention should be made of principal clarinet, Thomas Phillips, and principal French horn player, Thomas Hundemer, who both stood out on the Shostakovich, too.
It was a great season ending, and the orchestra is set up for next season. Start renewing now because this symphony is too good not to.
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
September 17, 2006
by Alexandyr Kent, The Times
akent@gannett.com
Was the music hot in the Riverview Theatre last night, or was it just me?
With the Marcus Roberts Trio as its guest, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra started its 59th season with vigor and three standing ovations. If the "Gershwin on Fire" concert is any indication, ushers should pass out bottles of water with the programs for the rest of the year.
Let's skip ahead to the great stuff for a moment, shall we?
The nearly full house will not soon forget the second piece on the program: the trio's re-imagining of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. As was demonstrated last night, the piece has been re-energized by pianist Marcus Roberts and his cohorts, drummer Jason Marsalis and upright acoustic bassist Roland Guerin. It sounded so new, in fact, that the audience decided to offer a lengthy standing ovation between the second and third movements.
The performance was highlighted by Robert's imagination and virtuosity. He has essentially taken the Gershwin piece, which in its original form sounds like a French theme for Tin Pan Alley, and infused it with jazz and more rhythmic variation and melodic sensuality.
Marsalis and Guerin gave the work an intoxicating pulse, helping to guide the orchestra into a stirring performance.
It was an thoroughly exhausting piece to listen, but that didn't stop the audience from standing up for a second time. Shouts of approval coming from my neck of theater were loud, and included "How good was that?", "Oh, my goodness!", and "It's been so long since I've heard good jazz!" Ditto.
Conductor and music director Michael Butterman gambled by featuring a trio that reinterprets a classic from a favorite American composer. As suggested by the genuine buzz during intermission, the successful risk-taking should pay off in more ticket sales.
Lest we forget, Butterman told the audience that other pieces on the program were about rebellious spirits, too.
The night opened with Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." While playing got off to a loose start, the orchestra tightened up for a powerful middle and end. Jazz influences were punched up with Cuban and Latin American rhythms, using bongos and claves to make the melodies sound more playful and, to me, drunkenly beautiful. Every time I hear it, the martini shaker in my mind offers suggestions I really shouldn't indulge. (At least not on deadline.)
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and its finale, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber." Like Gershwin, these two composers are taking other styles of music and themes and painting them with new colors. The orchestra's results were soothing with Brahms and invigorating with Hindemith.
With Marcus Roberts as its sterling example, the "Gershwin on Fire" concert proved that old beauty can be altered and made new. Most symphony-goers, who ended the night with its last standing ovation, seemed to approve.
Symphony puts a rousing end to the season
Lane Crockett - Forum Magazine
The Shreveport Symphony couldn’t have planned a better ending to the 2005-2006 season than the one it offered May 13 at the Shreveport Civic Theater.
You not only got passionate Russian composers, but two pianists of the gold medal variety. Guest artists for the program were the co-winners of the 2005 Nena Plant Wideman Piano Competition, Tatiana Mitchko Tessman from Russia and Ji Yeon Shin from South Korea.
For an extra bonus, resident conductor and concertmaster, Kermit Poling, and the orchestra outdid themselves on a stunning concert that was satisfying and thrilling. You want to do that because it makes patrons and prospective patrons ready for the next season. You know, leave them wanting more.
Opening the concert was Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” One hates to use the description, but the piece was sprightly and wonderfully played by the symphony. Sprightly somehow doesn’t seem compatible with Shostakovich, but it is apt in this case. It’s a tight, energetic overture that was tightly and energetically played by the musicians under Poling’s baton.
You had to marvel at the ochestra’s balance on this piece. If the musicians could play as a unit, then they did on this one. It was an exciting kick off for the program. The symphony should do more Shostakovich. They do him well.
Next was Peter Tchaikovsky’s grandly dramatic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1” that has a hallowed history for longtime Shreveport symphony patrons. Van Cliburn, a native Shreveporter, stunned the world and won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, held in Moscow, in 1958. That even won him a ticker tape parade in New York City and made Americans very aware of this piece.
At the piano this this time was Tessman, who, one might say, played the heck out of it. She is a strong, decisive pianist and moved through this flamboyant concerto without hesitation. If there was anything clichéd about this oft-played composition, Tessman bypassed it, offering a fresh, thrilling interpretation that had the audience on its feet.
The pianist took charge and was solidly supported by Poling and the musicians. In fact, Poling did an excellent job in coordinating with her. Tessman can go from the big, dramatic sound to the softly lyrical, which this piece demands. She illustrated that further by offering a short encore of a principal theme from the ballet of “ Swan Lake,” also by Tchaikovsky. Sans orchestra, she displayed her skill in creating and developing the loveliness of this theme.
After intermission came Shin’s time, and she equaled Tessman’s bravura on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s well-loved and beautiful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” If you are a true movie buff, you would have recognized the number’s principal theme as the theme from 1953’s “The Story of Three Loves.”
In ways, the Rachmaninoff is more technically challenging than the Tchaikovsky, but then Rachmaninoff was a pianist and Tchaikovsky wasn’t. On this piece, there is cross-hand playing, abrupt tempo shifts and an emotional range all over the place. Shin rode the number with aplomb, being big and demanding when necessary and then quiet and introspective. She, too, had the audience on its feet. When she tore into the primary theme, you could feel chills up your spine.
Ending the concert was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov’s lilting and often fiery “Capriccio Espangol.” This could have been anticlimactic after the pianists, but Poling didn’t let it be. He and the orchestra took the listeners on a ride – lots of wonderful percussion work – and finished off the piece on a high, resounding note. On this number, several of the orchestra’s players were highlighted but mention should be made of principal clarinet, Thomas Phillips, and principal French horn player, Thomas Hundemer, who both stood out on the Shostakovich, too.
It was a great season ending, and the orchestra is set up for next season. Start renewing now because this symphony is too good not to.
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
September 17, 2006
by Alexandyr Kent, The Times
akent@gannett.com
Was the music hot in the Riverview Theatre last night, or was it just me?
With the Marcus Roberts Trio as its guest, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra started its 59th season with vigor and three standing ovations. If the "Gershwin on Fire" concert is any indication, ushers should pass out bottles of water with the programs for the rest of the year.
Let's skip ahead to the great stuff for a moment, shall we?
The nearly full house will not soon forget the second piece on the program: the trio's re-imagining of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. As was demonstrated last night, the piece has been re-energized by pianist Marcus Roberts and his cohorts, drummer Jason Marsalis and upright acoustic bassist Roland Guerin. It sounded so new, in fact, that the audience decided to offer a lengthy standing ovation between the second and third movements.
The performance was highlighted by Robert's imagination and virtuosity. He has essentially taken the Gershwin piece, which in its original form sounds like a French theme for Tin Pan Alley, and infused it with jazz and more rhythmic variation and melodic sensuality.
Marsalis and Guerin gave the work an intoxicating pulse, helping to guide the orchestra into a stirring performance.
It was an thoroughly exhausting piece to listen, but that didn't stop the audience from standing up for a second time. Shouts of approval coming from my neck of theater were loud, and included "How good was that?", "Oh, my goodness!", and "It's been so long since I've heard good jazz!" Ditto.
Conductor and music director Michael Butterman gambled by featuring a trio that reinterprets a classic from a favorite American composer. As suggested by the genuine buzz during intermission, the successful risk-taking should pay off in more ticket sales.
Lest we forget, Butterman told the audience that other pieces on the program were about rebellious spirits, too.
The night opened with Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." While playing got off to a loose start, the orchestra tightened up for a powerful middle and end. Jazz influences were punched up with Cuban and Latin American rhythms, using bongos and claves to make the melodies sound more playful and, to me, drunkenly beautiful. Every time I hear it, the martini shaker in my mind offers suggestions I really shouldn't indulge. (At least not on deadline.)
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and its finale, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber." Like Gershwin, these two composers are taking other styles of music and themes and painting them with new colors. The orchestra's results were soothing with Brahms and invigorating with Hindemith.
With Marcus Roberts as its sterling example, the "Gershwin on Fire" concert proved that old beauty can be altered and made new. Most symphony-goers, who ended the night with its last standing ovation, seemed to approve.
Symphony puts a rousing end to the season
Lane Crockett - Forum Magazine
The Shreveport Symphony couldn’t have planned a better ending to the 2005-2006 season than the one it offered May 13 at the Shreveport Civic Theater.
You not only got passionate Russian composers, but two pianists of the gold medal variety. Guest artists for the program were the co-winners of the 2005 Nena Plant Wideman Piano Competition, Tatiana Mitchko Tessman from Russia and Ji Yeon Shin from South Korea.
For an extra bonus, resident conductor and concertmaster, Kermit Poling, and the orchestra outdid themselves on a stunning concert that was satisfying and thrilling. You want to do that because it makes patrons and prospective patrons ready for the next season. You know, leave them wanting more.
Opening the concert was Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” One hates to use the description, but the piece was sprightly and wonderfully played by the symphony. Sprightly somehow doesn’t seem compatible with Shostakovich, but it is apt in this case. It’s a tight, energetic overture that was tightly and energetically played by the musicians under Poling’s baton.
You had to marvel at the ochestra’s balance on this piece. If the musicians could play as a unit, then they did on this one. It was an exciting kick off for the program. The symphony should do more Shostakovich. They do him well.
Next was Peter Tchaikovsky’s grandly dramatic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1” that has a hallowed history for longtime Shreveport symphony patrons. Van Cliburn, a native Shreveporter, stunned the world and won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, held in Moscow, in 1958. That even won him a ticker tape parade in New York City and made Americans very aware of this piece.
At the piano this this time was Tessman, who, one might say, played the heck out of it. She is a strong, decisive pianist and moved through this flamboyant concerto without hesitation. If there was anything clichéd about this oft-played composition, Tessman bypassed it, offering a fresh, thrilling interpretation that had the audience on its feet.
The pianist took charge and was solidly supported by Poling and the musicians. In fact, Poling did an excellent job in coordinating with her. Tessman can go from the big, dramatic sound to the softly lyrical, which this piece demands. She illustrated that further by offering a short encore of a principal theme from the ballet of “ Swan Lake,” also by Tchaikovsky. Sans orchestra, she displayed her skill in creating and developing the loveliness of this theme.
After intermission came Shin’s time, and she equaled Tessman’s bravura on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s well-loved and beautiful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” If you are a true movie buff, you would have recognized the number’s principal theme as the theme from 1953’s “The Story of Three Loves.”
In ways, the Rachmaninoff is more technically challenging than the Tchaikovsky, but then Rachmaninoff was a pianist and Tchaikovsky wasn’t. On this piece, there is cross-hand playing, abrupt tempo shifts and an emotional range all over the place. Shin rode the number with aplomb, being big and demanding when necessary and then quiet and introspective. She, too, had the audience on its feet. When she tore into the primary theme, you could feel chills up your spine.
Ending the concert was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov’s lilting and often fiery “Capriccio Espangol.” This could have been anticlimactic after the pianists, but Poling didn’t let it be. He and the orchestra took the listeners on a ride – lots of wonderful percussion work – and finished off the piece on a high, resounding note. On this number, several of the orchestra’s players were highlighted but mention should be made of principal clarinet, Thomas Phillips, and principal French horn player, Thomas Hundemer, who both stood out on the Shostakovich, too.
It was a great season ending, and the orchestra is set up for next season. Start renewing now because this symphony is too good not to.
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
January 13, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
February 4, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
Michael Butterman conducted a great concert. The orchestra deserves high praise for its most spirited performance of the season. Anyone who came into the concert hall with cold hands certainly left with warm ears.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
Hearing Donald Webb narrate "'Twas a Night Before Christmas" over young listeners' heads might make some proud to have a new granddaughter to read to.
Witnessing the angelic innocence of the Red River Children's Chorus might remind others of caroling in front of candlelit windows.
Still more might join soprano Margaret Williams Jones for "White Christmas" just to feel part of a crowd connected by genuinely hopeful sentiment.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
Of course, the rest never got as much movie work as Williams. But really "» poor saps.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
Review: Symphony gets mixed result in pairing music, dance
February 10, 2008
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
Dance companies commanded the apron Saturday at Riverview Theater during the first half of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra's concert. The performances themselves were wonderful, but a busy stage made it sometimes difficult to appreciate the give and take between music and dance.
This Dance Symphonic concert continued the season's exploration of relationships between music and other disciplines.
A trio of dancers from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company performed a piece for Carl Nielsen's "Helios Overture." The tone poem charts the rise and fall of the sun over the Aegean Sea, working itself into a boiling fugue for the midday blaze.
Luther Cox Jr.'s choreography, often synchronized or nearly so, moved from soft and subtle to muscular and bold. Dancer Tiffany Hayes was particularly strong, though it's quite difficult to single out just one on this crisp team.
Louisiana Dance Theatre performed the choreography of Dianne Maroney-Grigsby to Astor Piazzolla's "Tangazo." Offering a blend of slower melodies and upbeat, syncopated tango rhythms, it was an exuberant, enlivening performance.
The solo work of dancer Allison Sauls was seductive, flowing and fun. Maroney-Grigby's choreography was versatile, lively and well suited to the many moods of Piazzolla.
For both pieces, the staging of the dancers and orchestra looked awkward.
By necessity, the choreography was mostly horizontal. The full orchestra served as a backdrop of sorts, having to crowd itself underneath the shell.
In short, the eye has a hard time settling on focal points, which made for muddy interplay between the disciplines.
After intermission, the orchestra returned to play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Music director Michael Butterman obviously loved conducting this piece and injecting the playing with the type of fire and punch audiences love. They rewarded them with an appreciative standing ovation.
I, for one, wouldn't have minded an encore of the third movement, with its closing resurrection theme promising listeners that the music of Rachmaninoff will never leave us empty.
The evening will probably be remembered, however, for the orchestra's heavy-hearted tribute to Mark Wolfe, the principal tubist who was killed in a car accident. They eulogized him with a performance of Leopold Stokowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's "Come Sweet Death," which was followed by a moment of silence.
Recognizing the lost contributions of a colleague are rarely so moving.
Symphony offers warm reasons to reflect
December 16, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
A holiday pops concert is not the time to check off the critical scorecard, singling out which orchestra sections have been naughty or nice.
The familiar music sends us too deeply inside ourselves, reminding us that days between Thanksgiving and New Year's are moments to reflect on what's passed and anticipate what's ahead.
The Shreveport Symphony's Saturday concert offered a diverse program that likely reawakened a diverse body of memories. There were traditional Christmas medleys. There were Hanukkah arrangements. There was even a self-mocking conductor, Michael Butterman, breaking out a ukulele, donning a grass skirt and singing a Hawaiian holiday tune for our amusement.
Personally speaking, Jeff Tyzik's "Skater's Overture" carried me back to wintry nights spent on an outdoor hockey rink, flicking tennis balls at a goalie and sipping hot apple cider to keep the windchill at bay.
I don't remember recalling this memory before, and I was grateful that a jazzy exchange between double bass, drums and brass made it vivid.
The program worked because it fed our need for nostalgia at a time of year when many so desperately seek it. If you left Riverview Theater, like me, with a mind filled with memories, you too were grateful that familiar music set them free. I unabashedly appreciated the gift and presume the packed house did, too.
Review: Symphony offers pleasant tribute to the screen
November 18, 2007
By Alexandyr Kent
akent@gannett.com
When it comes to Hollywood praise, Aaron Copland, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the mighty Dimitri Shostakovich got nothing on John Williams.
The preeminent movie composer — who's scored everything from "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) to " Munich " (2005) — has collected 45 Oscar nominations, including five wins. The rest, together, have 12 official nominations, including three wins.
On Saturday, the Shreveport Symphony ventured into a world long-dominated by Williams to show us that they are more to movie scores, and the composers who write them, than blockbuster themes (which, to today's movie audiences, are all pretty much Williams').
There was Korngold, whose pioneering early work during the 1930s and 1940s helped transform movie scoring into a high art form. The orchestra's concert began with his "Themes and Variations," his last published work. Regrettably, its seven variations aren't very memorable, but the piece's Romantic warmth did ease us into things.
There was Copland, "the dean of American composers" whose music unofficially inspired oodles of western scores. We got to hear his "Music for Movies" suite. The piece's first and third sections — based on his score for a documentary called "The City" — provided a striking example of how Copland could take instruments and present them as small but clear voices speaking inside an expansive orchestral world. Work by principal trumpeter Rick Rowell was first-rate.
There was Shostakovich. We were treated to the Romance from the film score to "The Gadfly," a 1955 Russian film and perhaps a personal favorite of music director Michael Butterman. As Butterman was surprised to learn from the podium, there were a few attendees who seemed to know the piece's later use: a 1980s British TV miniseries called "Reilly: Life of Spies."
There was Gershwin, who tickled the audience the most. The symphony played "An American in Paris ," a 1928 composition that later inspired Gene Kelly to hoof it famously in the 1951 movie musical of the same name. Just as Kelly astounded us by rifling through different dance styles to match a theme's mood, the symphony provided the audience with a rousing illustration as to how Gershwin took misfit themes and wove them together as a pastiche-like portrait of a diverse urban world. Sandwiched around intermission of this "Cinematastic" concert were the evening's soloists. Their appearances were both lively and well-received.
Alto saxophonist Brian Utley came on stage for Williams' "Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra." Based on Steven Spielberg's conman biopic "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) — which of course earned Williams an Oscar nod — Utley showed us a jazzy side of the multi-faceted composer. Utley anchored a small jazz combo downstage. His bebop for the piece's playful opener was quite memorable, and he delivered a fine performance.
Not to be outdone, bassoonist William Ludwig was featured for Rota 's "Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra." The piece demanded athleticism and endurance, and Ludwig presented the work effortlessly. For my money, the soloist's playing was the most rewarding of the night.
The Shreveport Symphony presented us with an amusing diversion from a holiday movie-going season that's bound to be full of hey-nominate-me scores, heroic fanfares and leitmotifs galore. This program was a welcome reminder that composers, whether writing for movies or concert
Symphony Review: Shreveport Symphony delivers a stunner
akent@gannett.com
There is nothing like two hours of shocking music to fire a chilly winter night.
On Saturday at Riverview Theater the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra treated the audience to an invigorating program of works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. The first was dreamy. The second was jolting. And the third was 51 minutes of intense drama.
The night started with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." The late 19th century work is based on fanciful poem, and its sparse, colorful orchestration conjures up a forest where the faun chases nymphs into a dream state.
The flutists put in a sublime performance, expertly threading a piece that wavers delicately near a melody but never lands on one. The entire woodwind section took the piece to warming places, capturing its carefree spirit.
Second was the true shocker of the night, Stravinsky's suite for "The Firebird" (1919). A knowing patron to my right announced, "Here comes the horns," as their carriers flooded in from an upstage door. Just moments later, however, she had forgotten their arrival.
She jumped like a startled cat when the first note of the "Infernal Dance of King Kashchei" pounced onto the audience, and smiled when she realized how thrilling the surprise can be.
The orchestra nailed the dramatic shifts in meter, volume and tone that make Stravinsky such a force.
Lastly came Beethoven's Third Symphony (1803). The Eroica was very long for its age. Its first two movements span more than 30 minutes, but the entire piece's alternate tensing and releasing makes for a stirring and ultimately humbling experience. No one person could ever live up to such a rousing tribute. (OK, maybe Napoleon.)
For my money, I would have paid to hear the funeral march again. Its effect was unsettling, and I haven't heard the audience sit that quietly all season.
The Master Series returns March 3 with "Simply Sinatra." Those left breathless last night have ample time to recover.
Review: People’s Concert earns its praise
akent@gannett.com
Instructions for audience participation are always straightforward at the People’s Concert.
“Don’t be too stuffy now. This is the people’s concert,” emcee Al Weeden advised Friday night at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual event. One nearby patron took his words literally, pounding her palms together over polite applause, willing everyone to clap more freely, to immerse themselves in a night of music that moves us.
Conductor Kermit Poling, Choir Director S. Royce Mosley, the orchestra, the north Louisiana gospel choirs, vocal soloists and dancers put in a full night of passion at Riverview Theatre. Celebrating the spirit of coming together to honor sacrifice, the performers roused the crowd.
Highlights from the evening included Kellee Johnson’s take on “My Help.” The local gospel singer eased her way into the solo, each verse building in intensity as the choir’s metronomic sway got wider and wider. By the time her emotions erupted into “Yes it does, yes it does” over and over again, audience members were calling out, “Oh, yes,” and, “Sing, Kellee,” as heaven-sent tokens of thanks.
Another highlight came during the orchestra’s performance of “Requiem and Revival” by local composer Darrel Andrews. Dancers Luther Cox and Tiffany Hayes from Inter City Row Modern Dance Company took over the apron. They worked through sinks and lifts, expansions and contractions — movements representing struggle and renewal, hardship and hope. It was simply staged and nicely executed.
Still another came during the playing of Thomas Hundemer’s “Opening Night at Bogalusa.” The narrative piece depicts an integrated touring theater company’s ride into the Louisiana town during the civil rights movement. The storied Deacons for Defense and Justice provided armed protection to secure their safety. Angelique Feaster narrated, giving the precarious, punchy piece a sense of calm and hope. (Hundemer is the orchestra’s principal horn player.)
The evening’s star proved to be Mosley. He sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” a spiritual arranged to sparse, haunting music by Poling. Mosley delivered the retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion with a sense of unspoken suffering. Instead of raising the volume of his voice, he worked through beautiful shades of humility and agony.
Additional solos were provided by Barbara Johnson, Mia Dunn and Jeanette Owens. They all earned well-deserved praise from an audience that loved gospel the most.
As Poling admitted when he took the mic, he didn’t know much about gospel music before moving to northwest Louisiana years ago. He grew up in suburban Cleveland and had to find people here to help him learn the power behind praise music.
The lessons, it seems, have stuck. His love for gospel is plainly evident in his bouncing baton and buckling knees.
The concert’s point is to open our minds to music that empowers all walks of life. It’s a grand idea, one that starts at a conductor’s podium, fires performers and inspires the audience to believe in the unifying power of melody.
Mission accomplished Friday night. We can’t ask more from a concert than that.
Roberts, SSO light 'Fire' in a crowded theater
akent@gannett.com
Was the music hot in the Riverview Theatre last night, or was it just me?
With the Marcus Roberts Trio as its guest, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra started its 59th season with vigor and three standing ovations. If the "Gershwin on Fire" concert is any indication, ushers should pass out bottles of water with the programs for the rest of the year.
Let's skip ahead to the great stuff for a moment, shall we?
The nearly full house will not soon forget the second piece on the program: the trio's re-imagining of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. As was demonstrated last night, the piece has been re-energized by pianist Marcus Roberts and his cohorts, drummer Jason Marsalis and upright acoustic bassist Roland Guerin. It sounded so new, in fact, that the audience decided to offer a lengthy standing ovation between the second and third movements.
The performance was highlighted by Robert's imagination and virtuosity. He has essentially taken the Gershwin piece, which in its original form sounds like a French theme for Tin Pan Alley, and infused it with jazz and more rhythmic variation and melodic sensuality.
Marsalis and Guerin gave the work an intoxicating pulse, helping to guide the orchestra into a stirring performance.
It was an thoroughly exhausting piece to listen, but that didn't stop the audience from standing up for a second time. Shouts of approval coming from my neck of theater were loud, and included "How good was that?", "Oh, my goodness!", and "It's been so long since I've heard good jazz!" Ditto.
Conductor and music director Michael Butterman gambled by featuring a trio that reinterprets a classic from a favorite American composer. As suggested by the genuine buzz during intermission, the successful risk-taking should pay off in more ticket sales.
Lest we forget, Butterman told the audience that other pieces on the program were about rebellious spirits, too.
The night opened with Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." While playing got off to a loose start, the orchestra tightened up for a powerful middle and end. Jazz influences were punched up with Cuban and Latin American rhythms, using bongos and claves to make the melodies sound more playful and, to me, drunkenly beautiful. Every time I hear it, the martini shaker in my mind offers suggestions I really shouldn't indulge. (At least not on deadline.)
After intermission, the orchestra returned for Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and its finale, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber." Like Gershwin, these two composers are taking other styles of music and themes and painting them with new colors. The orchestra's results were soothing with Brahms and invigorating with Hindemith.
With Marcus Roberts as its sterling example, the "Gershwin on Fire" concert proved that old beauty can be altered and made new. Most symphony-goers, who ended the night with its last standing ovation, seemed to approve.
Symphony puts a rousing end to the season
Lane Crockett - Forum Magazine
The Shreveport Symphony couldn’t have planned a better ending to the 2005-2006 season than the one it offered May 13 at the Shreveport Civic Theater.
You not only got passionate Russian composers, but two pianists of the gold medal variety. Guest artists for the program were the co-winners of the 2005 Nena Plant Wideman Piano Competition, Tatiana Mitchko Tessman from Russia and Ji Yeon Shin from South Korea.
For an extra bonus, resident conductor and concertmaster, Kermit Poling, and the orchestra outdid themselves on a stunning concert that was satisfying and thrilling. You want to do that because it makes patrons and prospective patrons ready for the next season. You know, leave them wanting more.
Opening the concert was Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” One hates to use the description, but the piece was sprightly and wonderfully played by the symphony. Sprightly somehow doesn’t seem compatible with Shostakovich, but it is apt in this case. It’s a tight, energetic overture that was tightly and energetically played by the musicians under Poling’s baton.
You had to marvel at the ochestra’s balance on this piece. If the musicians could play as a unit, then they did on this one. It was an exciting kick off for the program. The symphony should do more Shostakovich. They do him well.
Next was Peter Tchaikovsky’s grandly dramatic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1” that has a hallowed history for longtime Shreveport symphony patrons. Van Cliburn, a native Shreveporter, stunned the world and won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, held in Moscow, in 1958. That even won him a ticker tape parade in New York City and made Americans very aware of this piece.
At the piano this this time was Tessman, who, one might say, played the heck out of it. She is a strong, decisive pianist and moved through this flamboyant concerto without hesitation. If there was anything clichéd about this oft-played composition, Tessman bypassed it, offering a fresh, thrilling interpretation that had the audience on its feet.
The pianist took charge and was solidly supported by Poling and the musicians. In fact, Poling did an excellent job in coordinating with her. Tessman can go from the big, dramatic sound to the softly lyrical, which this piece demands. She illustrated that further by offering a short encore of a principal theme from the ballet of “ Swan Lake,” also by Tchaikovsky. Sans orchestra, she displayed her skill in creating and developing the loveliness of this theme.
After intermission came Shin’s time, and she equaled Tessman’s bravura on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s well-loved and beautiful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” If you are a true movie buff, you would have recognized the number’s principal theme as the theme from 1953’s “The Story of Three Loves.”
In ways, the Rachmaninoff is more technically challenging than the Tchaikovsky, but then Rachmaninoff was a pianist and Tchaikovsky wasn’t. On this piece, there is cross-hand playing, abrupt tempo shifts and an emotional range all over the place. Shin rode the number with aplomb, being big and demanding when necessary and then quiet and introspective. She, too, had the audience on its feet. When she tore into the primary theme, you could feel chills up your spine.
Ending the concert was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov’s lilting and often fiery “Capriccio Espangol.” This could have been anticlimactic after the pianists, but Poling didn’t let it be. He and the orchestra took the listeners on a ride – lots of wonderful percussion work – and finished off the piece on a high, resounding note. On this number, several of the orchestra’s players were highlighted but mention should be made of principal clarinet, Thomas Phillips, and principal French horn player, Thomas Hundemer, who both stood out on the Shostakovich, too.
It was a great season ending, and the orchestra is set up for next season. Start renewing now because this symphony is too good not to.
