Concert Reviews
New NH Orchestra Banishes Boredom
Ever wonder where your musical values came from? The concert programs I like generally respect what came before, honor local composers, bring new pieces to light, give the audience a varied program they can really enjoy, and then even enhance it with narration and/or slides. That's why the Connecticut River Valley Orchestra's recent concert, Music of the Gilded Age 1885-1910, Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Cornish Colony, was such a treat! It also left me with little doubt about a significant source of many of my firmly held tenets of music and education. When my former french horn teacher, Ginger Culpepper, its personnel manager, and her husband, Max, its conductor, told me about this concert, I thought it sounded like fun, and indeed it was! "What? Another symphony concert?" ...I hear you say. "You just liked it because they're your friends." Well, perhaps I am biased. However, ask yourself this: have you ever avoided orchestra performances, not wanting to be bored to tears by umpteenth performances of lengthy old hackneyed symphonies and the like? Or been embarrassed too many times by certain watered-down, overly-dramatized and schlocky pop arrangements? Have no fear, the Connecticut River Valley Orchestra will not deliver either of those orchestral nightmare scenarios. You see, it's a whole different world at the Claremont Opera House. Instead, you will experience the CRVO's characteristic warmth, quality, variety and top-notch programming, from which you will actually learn something, while being entertained! |
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