Philharmonic cranking up wind for 'Don Quixote'

Photo by ERIN MCCRACKEN

Jason Ginter, member of the Evansville´s Philharmonic orchestra's percussion section practices with the Indianapolis Symphony's wind machine in preparation for Saturday´s performance of Straus´ "Don Quixote" -- titled "A Ride Through the Air" as part of the Philharmonic Saturday Classic Concert Series.

The Evansville Philharmonic could probably find some sophisticated electronics to create the "whoosh" that will sweep out from The Victory's stage Saturday night, but that won't be necessary.

Not when they can do it with a drum roll.

That's literally what will happen during one windswept movement in Richard Strauss' tone poem "Don Quixote," the concluding work on Saturday's concert bill.

Percussionist Jason Ginter will crank a handle to turn what looks like a large, slatted, bass drum laid on its side on a spindle. As it turns, wooden slats on the side of the black drum will brush against a heavy canvas sheet draped over the cylinder, creating the dynamic whooshing effect that sets the tone for "The Ride Through the Air," a selection in which Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes' clueless champion of lost, misunderstood causes, rides a wooden hobby horse he imagines is Pegasus, the flying horse.

The faster Ginter turns the crank, the higher and more insistent the sound will swell.

For Ginter, an eight-year veteran of the philharmonic, it's all part of the fun of a job that might have him playing anything from cymbals and snares to Coke bottles, trash can lids or rice bowls.

"I really enjoy figuring out how to play different instruments, and how to make music on them," he says.

He's only played a wind machine once before, when he was a student at the Cincinnati Conservatory, but he watched another Evansville Philharmonic member, Suzanne Downes, operate this same wind machine, on loan from the Indianapolis Symphony, last season, evoking the sounds of subzero-degree winds for Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Antarctica Symphony."

"It took Suzanne both hands to turn the crank," he recalls, "and she's a strong woman."

The conductor's score for the music calls for the wind machine to be placed offstage, out of sight from the audience, notes Alfred Savia, the orchestra's music director and conductor for Saturday's concert.

Savia says he's tempted to ignore the stage direction, however.

"I'm thinking maybe it would be neater to put it on stage and let the audience see it."

No matter where it goes, the wind machine will play second fiddle to David Beem, the orchestra's principal cellist, in "Don Quixote." "It's like a cello concerto," says Savia, with that instrument representing the noble, comic knight errant from Cervantes classical novel.

Principal violist Christopher McKay will be featured in passages representing Quixote's steadfast companion, Sancho Panza.

The concert will open with Gioacchino Rossini's Overture to "La Cenerentola" ("Cinderella") followed by Manuel de Falla's "El Amor Brujo" ("Spellbound Love"), featuring guest vocalist Lucille Beer in the alto solos. The music, written for a ballet, includes De Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance," familiar to many as a popular concert selection on its own.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/mar/15/philharmonic-cranking-wind-don-quixote/