October 8, 2005 7:30 pm
Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls
Sean Botkin & Genadi Zagor, pianos
Wagner – Overture, Die Meistersinger
Mozart – Two Piano Concerto K. 365
Bartok – Concerto for Orchestra
WCFSO starts season with challenge
By George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
October 11, 2005
For its first concert of the season, the full Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra performed an extremely enjoyable program in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center last weekend. Three works were performed, each from a different century and different musical tradition.
The evening opened with the exhilarating, grandiose overture to Richard Wagner’s opera 'Des Meistersinger von Nurnberg.' The opera has been described as genial and kindly. Thus the piece has no hint of darkness or unfilled desire. Instead the overture triumphantly develops the opera’s major themes, and ends with an uplifting and earth-shaking climax. The WCFSO gave it a stirring reading that served as a buoyant beginning for the season.
The program’s centerpiece was Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos, with soloists Sean Botkin and Genadi Zagor at the keyboards. Mozart’s piano concerti are all fabulous, but in this, he created a new dynamic. Instead of the usual dialogue between soloist and orchestra, the two players converse in some very clever and delicately nuanced passages. Of course, the prevailing mood is all vivacity and charm. Botkin and Zagor gave a peerless performance. With no histrionics, they simply let the music tell the story through their exquisite technique. I believe the audience response to their performance was as enthusiastic and as prolonged as any I have ever heard at a WCFSO concert. In return, a splendid encore followed: the overture to Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, transcribed for two pianos. The elaborate variations were played with awesome speed and dexterity.
For the last half of the program we heard a stirring performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, a work that displays that composer’s skill at instrumentation. Each section of the WCFSO section played the difficult score with skill. Maestro Weinberger worked as hard as anyone to create a perfectly synthesized performance. In spite of the work’s complexity, the audience loved it and gave an ovation it justly deserved.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.