The final
performance of the Prince George's Philharmonic 2013-2014 concert season took
place on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Dekelboum Hall at the Clarice Smith
Performing Arts Center, College Park, Maryland.
The evening offered the audience a commanding performance of three
masters of Western classical music, and a first hearing of an accomplished
contemporary composer's work. Elizabeth Palmer's premiered orchestral work, Beyond Space and Time, held its own in
the august canonic musical gathering.
The concert
began, appropriately, with an overture built in large part on rhythmic pulses
which set the stage for the three other works on the program. The orchestra
played the Beethoven with technical mastery right to the whispered final notes,
a performance that highlighted Ms. Palmer's beautiful tone poem, Beyond Space and Time. Her work with
its shifting harmonies and pulsating crescendos was, in turn, reflected in the
second movement of the Haydn Symphony, a symphony which itself was built upon
shifting harmonies and rhythms that ebbed and flowed until the final resolution.
Palmer's sense of timing and her control of harmonic devices allowed her to
build on three centuries of compositional technique creating a sound very much
her own while at the same time reflective of the classical musical traditions.
Ms. Palmer,
who has played the euphonium for 20 years, studied music technology at
Susquehanna University, and then completed a master’s degree in music education
at Towson University. During those years, she took courses in composition. She
taught music for several years in Prince George’s County schools, and has been
involved with mentoring young music students. For the past two years she has
been studying for her doctorate at the University of Southern California which
will include music education, theory and arts leadership.
The Haydn
Symphony completed the first half of the program. The usual listener's default
position when hearing a major composition in symphonic form for the first time
is the recall immediately the two 'exciting' outer movements. I fell for the
two inner movements at last night's performance, especially the third movement
with its sliding harmonic motif of the minuet and the beautiful bassoon solo in
the trio section. The orchestra, with a few intonation struggles for a few
seconds in the slow introduction of the Haydn, was in complete control of the
music under the masterful direction of its conductor, Maestro Ellis. Mr. Ellis
chose to fuse the orchestra section's sound (strings, woodwinds, brass,
&c.) rather than highlighting the sections as I have come to expect. This
led to a very rich, velvety performance of the first half compositions and set
the stage by way of contrast for the Stravinsky.
How does
one even begin to review the fabulous, stunning, extraordinary, masterful
performance of the Rite of Spring. Speechless comes to mind.
The virtuoso rendition of Stravinsky's
monumental score that still “seem[s] to violate all the most hallowed concepts of
beauty, harmony, tone and expression" was inspiring. The Italian composer, Roman Vlad,
continued his description of the daunting Rite of Spring explaining that "never had an audience heard anything so
brutal, savage, aggressive and apparently chaotic" (Roman Vlad, 1967). Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky "collaborated
in 1913 on the most shocking, ground breaking music and ballet the world had ever
experienced and it may still be the most striking work ever done (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewOBXph0hP4&list=RDewOBXph0hP4#t=1801)." The Prince George's Philharmonic and its conductor, Mr. Ellis, rose to the occasion with their brilliant performance bringing the emotion of the music to the forefront and overcoming any preconceived reservations the audience may have had.
Mr. Ellis
and the orchestra surpassed all expectations. Describing the music is tough. Paul
Rosenfeld wrote early in the 20th century that it "pound[s] with the
rhythm of engines, whirls and spirals like screws and fly-wheels, grinds and
shrieks like laboring metal (Rosenfeld. Musical
Portraits: Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers. 1920. p. 202)."
To pull off a performance of the piece of music the conductor and the musicians
must be as one, and must be at the top of their professional game.
Mr. Ellis
let loose opportunities for soloists and featured sectional performances in the
nearly half-hour long performance. Mr. Ellis never lost touch with the musical
pulses which propel the ballet forward in time and the musicians of the Prince
George's Philharmonic rose to a pinnacle of performance; the audience rose to
give a standing ovation that was most certainly deserved.
How could
you not have been here with us for this once-in-a-lifetime musical offering? It
does not get better than this - I can hardly wait for next season's performances
Charles Ellis,
conductor
Elizabeth Palmer Beyond
Space and Time (World Premiere)
The
2014-2015 Prince George's Philharmonic season will lead off with a War of 1812 bicentennial
commemorative concert in Bowie.
The program
will feature Rossini's Tancredi Overture,
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A
major, K. 622, Wagner's Siegfried's Rhine
Journey, Rodger's Victory at Sea,
and Beethoven's Wellington's Victory Op.
91.
The musical
evening will follow a daylong symposium, Beyond the Battle,
which will explore life in Bladensburg and Prince George's County in the years
surrounding the Battle of Bladensburg which was fought in August of 1814.
Topics will
cover African American Life, Archeology, Inns, Taverns, Spas and Mills, Music, Horticulture
and Agriculture. The program will be held at the University campus in College Park.
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