7:30 pm, Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls
Alexander Solomon, piano
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto no. 3
Dvořák – Symphony no. 8
Download Rachmaninoff [93mb]
Download Dvořák [90mb]
Related post – Let's do some Rachmaninoff, dude [audio]
Related post – Accidental Americans preview [audio]
Photos – Accidental Americans
Photos – Pre-concert
WCFSO final classic concert strikes chord
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
April 9, 2008
The final classics concert of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra took place Saturday at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Guest artist was pianist Alexander Solomon, and conductor was WCFSO music director Jason Weinberger.
The works of two composers were featured on the program, 'Accidental Americans.' An odd title, but actually quite appropriate. Sergei Rachmaninoff came to the United States and Antonín Dvořák spent time here in the 1890s, in New York and Spillville, Iowa.
The first work on the bill was the Piano Concerto no. 3 by Rachmaninoff. The concerto is a challenging piece of music – Josef Hofman, a renowned pianist to whom the work was dedicated, declined to play it. Many musicologists consider it the most difficult piano concerto. Solomon swept through the score like a breeze. It was hard work, but he made it look easy – with much passion, but without showy mannerisms. He put the music, not himself, at center stage. For this and for his incredible technique, the audience loved him. Their response was tumultuous.
The next number was Dvořák's Symphony no. 8, surely one of the greatest symphonic works – intricate, inventive, and as joyous as any piece in the repertoire. It is chock-full of engaging, exciting details that make for an exhilarating experience. The bird-like trills of the flute, the lovely clarinet duet, the booming timpani, the whooping horn cries, the trumpet fanfares and rhapsodic string passages. Maestro Weinberger drew out all the richness of the score, the aforementioned delights and many others. The orchestra emanated crispness, energy, precision.
But that did not end the evening. We were granted to a nice postscript: one of Dvořák's many frenzied Slavonic Dances. That made for an ecstatic conclusion to a truly great season of classical music.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.