October 15, 2010 Review by Susan Capestro

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!

The familiar peals of the opening fanfare from Also sprach Zarathustra began the concert, augmented by beautiful, well-research slides and Stephen Langley's witty words of introduction. This composition by Strauss also served as a wonderful harbinger of things to come, for on May 15, 2011, the CRVO will present selections by all German composers. I wondered if that date's also free on my calendar, then chuckled when Langley pointed out that Also sprach has appeared in everything from Kubrick's 2001 to concerts by the band Phish.

Absolutely delightful was the Suite of Cornish Composers' pieces, completely new to me. This music by Edgar Kelley, Arthur Whiting and Horatio Parker was what originally attracted me to the concert. Kelley's Aladdin, Whiting's Golden Cage and Parker's Northern Ballad were chock-full of the character, colorful changes and lush combinations of instruments so typical of orchestral music composed during that era. The solid integrity of each section of the orchestra, from strings and woodwinds to brasses and percussion, was showcased, along with several fantastic soloists. These composers were part of the vibrant Cornish Art Colony, and here we were, listening to their work in the Claremont Opera House! How cool is that?

The pianist and composer, Amy Beach, was born in Henniker, NH. When I found out that the first movement of her Piano Concerto was also being performed, it cinched the deal; I could not miss this show. How often do you have an opportunity to hear that one? After the excitement of the Suite, though, I was concerned it might sound anti-climatic. A vague fear of boredom surfaced at the prospect of tolerating a nearly 20-minute-long late-romantic style movement, at the end of a first half. However, my sense of dread quickly evaporated. It became clear, once again, that things would be very different here. Virginia Eskin made her entrance onto the stage, and everything changed.

Eskin is so, well, un-stuffy! Her flamboyant and confident, yet casual and friendly presence relaxed everyone, paved the way for the orchestra's marvelous focus, and invited our attention. Think sort of Rachmaninoff-y gorgeous. Eskin, Culpepper, and the orchestra, totally on the same page, were seamlessly united in their concept of the piece. Their collaboration was tight yet fluid, perfect for the music's rhapsodic feeling. After a fiery cadenza was executed with bravado, lots of gutsy passion ensued. No "safe" performance, this one. Eskin played the heck out of this piece, and the orchestra nailed it. So purely musical, it was so much fun to listen to, I could have sat there all day!

Virginia Eskin's career is also fascinating. She plays traditional piano repertoire as well as ragtime, and champions works by American and European women composers. She also created and hosted First Ladies of Music, a series of one-hour shows distributed to over 100 stations in the US and abroad by Chicago's WFMT Radio. A glance at her repertoire list speaks volumes. How many pianists list compositions by composers from Beethoven to Gottschalk, including several women, plus an A Minor Concerto by each of the Schumanns, both Clara and Robert? Check out her performance schedule.

That was just the first half. The orchestra still had plenty of spunk and energy left for the first of George Whitefield Chadwick's Symphonic Sketches, and Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony, the final selection. I've always loved the folk-derived pentatonic themes of this work. When Dvořák was the director of the one-time National Conservatory of Music in NYC, he supported both Native American and African American music, Langley told us during his introductory comments. The Chadwick and Dvořák in the second half further highlighted the stunning soloists and strong sections of the CRVO. I was thinking, it'd be interesting to hear them play Ravel, Debussy or Berlioz! As luck would have it, I popped in the CD in the car on the way home, and enjoyed selections from An Evening in Paris, from last year, their very first season. The next three concerts this season will feature the CRVO's fabulous sections: Around the World: String Quartets, A Touch of Brass and Woodwind Whirlwind, followed by the full orchestra's A Rhine Journey: The Music of Germany in May.

The Connecticut River Valley Orchestra thoroughly succeeds in its goal to entertain while educating. All partiality aside, I really think you'll love their inspired programming, informative narratives, stellar musicians, creative staging and terrific acoustics. Furthermore, the Claremont Opera House is a very special and intimate place to see and hear an orchestra. Why? Imagine this: my seat in the center balcony was only about 40 feet away from the musicians! And children under 12 and Claremont students are admitted FREE. Particularly at this time, amid stories of recession and economic strife, there's nothing like a brand new, world class orchestra, performing smack dab in the middle of somewhat rural, northern New England, lifting our spirits, giving us all hope, and proving unequivocally that the arts are very much alive and thriving.