It was another hot summer night overlooking the St. Mary’s River at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Friday evening July 23, 2010. The humidity was oppressive, and didn’t let up. Undaunted, music director Jeffrey Silberschlag and the Chesapeake Orchestra played for a warm committed audience who showed up to hear the music in spite of the weather at this week’s River Concert .
José Cueto, first violinist and concert master of the Chesapeake Orchestra, the Concert Artists of Baltimore and the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, was featured in “José in Vienna!” playing Édouard Lalo’s “Symphonie espanole”. Mr. Cueto has played at the Kennedy Center, Washington Chamber Society, France, Italy and China and studied at the Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.
The Symphonie consisted of five movements beginning with a vibrant Spanish melody echoing between the orchestra and the soloist. The fifth movement, the Rondo: Allegro, was the highlight of the evening in my opinion, beginning with a cheerful repeated tune, preparing the audience for its bouncy and bright memorable melody as it was expertly played by Mr. Cueto. After intermission and a fairly long description by Jeffrey Silberschlag of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 7”, the concert continued. Mr. Silberschlag described the work as “a mix of Leonard Bernstein and a very depressed Woody Allen”.
The first movement, which began with trombone and trumpet solos, was so long that the audience thought it had moved into the second movement. Mr. Silberschlag held up two fingers indicating that he would start the second movement, to clue the audience into where we were listening. This began with whirling clarinets, sticks, horns and basses. At times it was light and march-like. We could randomly hear cowbells indicating cows grazing in a field. Between movements, Jeffrey Silbershlag suddenly looked up and said, “There’s the moon. We thought it had melted.” The audience laughed in commiseration. Nathaniel Silberschlag even walked on the stage with a towel and water spray fan, to the delight of his father and several members of the orchestra who received a quick break. It brought out many smiles in the orchestra.
The 3rd movement was described as nightmare or vampire music with lots of macabre sounding horns. The 4th movement began quietly with a violin solo by José Cueto. The music had some dark undertones and several brief mandolin solos. The 5th movement began with drums and a majestic fanfare. There were some odd sounding gongs, horns and the music would swell, only to slow down again and get softer, creating the expectation of endings that didn’t occur.
The final concert of the season, next Friday July 30th at 7pm, features vocalist Kate Baldwin, who was recently nominated for a Tony for her starring role in “Finian’s Rainbow”. The concert will be filled with Broadway songs, and “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5” should appeal to a broad audience. The author, Joanna Macaulay, is a professional photographer and music lover from Calm Reflections Photography in St. Mary’s County. Some of her work can be viewed at http://www.calmreflectionsphotography.com
