In "one of those unfortunate musical situations," says Sheryl Schuster,
a musical joke will likely upstage the classical jewels showcased in
The Victory on Wednesday.
Schuster isn't really complaining, however. As conductor for the
Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra II, she's the one who put
Richard Meyer's "One-Bow Concerto" on the lineup. It's an orchestral
novelty, a piece of musical shtick, written in the style of W.A. Mozart
or Franz Joseph Haydn, featuring one violinist, one violist, one
cellist and one bow — the cellist's — to play all their featured parts.
"It's kind of as if the other two have forgotten their bows," says
Schuster. At first they share Feinberg's, passing the bow from one to
another, "but then it gets to be kind of a keep-away kind of thing,"
she says, which forces the conductor to step into the fray and take
drastic action, removing the focus of their fight.
"I end up conducting the last few measures of the piece with the bow
I've taken away from them," says Schuster, "but they still have the
last word."
It's the silliest bit in the program, says Schuster, "and it will
probably end up being the most popular piece on the concert, because
it's just so cute."
There's plenty of meat in the program, too, for both the Youth
Orchestra II, an ensemble of 55 Tri-State musicians in grades 6 through
9, and the older Youth Orchestra, a 65-member orchestra of students in
grades 9 through 12.
Alfred Savia, music director for the Evansville Philharmonic, will
lead the older players through a program featuring Aaron Copland's
"Fanfare for the Common Man," Edvard Grieg's "Last Spring," Ralph
Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on "Greensleeves," Aram Khatchaturian's "The
Masquerade" Suite, William Walton's "Crown Imperial March," Antonin
Dvorak's Serenade in D Minor for Winds and John Williams' overture to
the 1972 John Wayne film, "The Cowboys."
The younger youth orchestra's program will include Jacques Bizet's
"Farandole," Robert Smith's "By Loch and Mountain," two movements from
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, Soon Hee Newbold's "Blue
Fire Fiddler" and John Williams' film music from "Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone."
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/nov/01/youth-concert-bows-to-classical-shtick/
