A program of 20th century chamber pieces sells out!

Waterloo Elks Lodge

Some people are aware that I am the program annotator for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Symphony Orchestra.  Therefore it may be inappropriate to place my imprimatur on the orchestra's programming as the most original and/or exciting in my immediate vicinity.  However, a writer is entitled to his opinions, but I will offer these few words with a grain of salt; I am an employee--albeit a very minor one--of the organization.  While they pay me for my research and literary knowledge, that is the end of it.

I usually complete the full season's set of notes in one sitting over the summer months, but that didn't happen this year.  So harm done; my first deadline arrived and I delivered on time.  (I am currently finished with the fall in toto and about 30% finished for the spring; once I get working on these projects, I get more than a bit of tunnel vision and simply want to get it done so I do not have to think of it anymore.)  But as I was preparing the copy for the November concert, I really became enthralled with the program.  It includes:

• Walter Piston:  Divertimento:  written in 1946 for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, string quartet, and contrabass, this piece marks Piston's departure from his earlier works.  Joseph Stevenson writes,  “It is not a change of style or technique; the music remains contrapuntal and chromatic. It is a question of tone and mood: There is more optimism, less cynicism.”
• John Harbison:  North and South, a six-song cycle based on the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979).  The author herself had wished that someone would set her poetry to music and Harbison has done an amazing job, crafting six evocative poems into a set written for the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
• Morton Gould:  Benny's Gig, a set of duos for clarinet and double bass, written for the legendary Benny Goodman.
• Bohuslav Martinu:  the wacky ballet score, Le Revue de Cuisine.
• Samuel Barber's popular (and rightly so) Knoxville, Summer of 1915, written on a commission from soprano Eleanor Steber (performer of the title role in the 1958 Met production of Barber’s Vanessa) who premiered it in 1948, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky. Barber’s compositional imagery has been described as rhapsodic as the music is such a poignant accompaniment to the text.

Now comes the hard part.  The concert, slated for November 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Waterloo Elks Lodge 290, is sold out.  Even I can't get in!

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