The 2016 Huey's (Part 4)! Quad City Symphony and WCF Symphony

Quad City Symphony (History)

The orchestra began at a meeting of musicians and citizens from Davenport, Rock Island and Moline on February 10, 1916. They hired Ludwig Becker of Chicago as the first music director. The first name for the orchestra was the Tri-City Symphony. The Tri-Cities, as the area was then called, was the smallest community in the United States to support a full symphony orchestra. The first rehearsal for the orchestra was held on March 12, 1916, and its first concert was held on March 29. The orchestra was composed of 60 amateur and professional musicians from the Tri-Cities.

Barely surviving the early years of the depression (and the loss of many professional players), in 1934 orchestra board member Elsie von Maur suggested they charge what the concerts were worth and return to hiring well-known guest artists. The changes worked. The orchestra started to make money, and was able to hire professional musicians again. The Junior Board was established in 1936 to sponsor fundraising projects. In 1940 Elsie von Maur became the symphony’s first manager, a position she held for 47 years.

Concerts were held at Augustana College's Centennial and, in the 1960s, also at Davenport's Masonic Temple. In the 1980s, the orchestra relocated Iowa concerts to the renovated Adler Theater (Saturday evenings) while still performing at Centennial (Sunday afternoons).

Compared to other orchestras on our list, the QCSO has had a large number of Music Director/Conductors. That said, James Dixon, late director of orchestras at the University of Iowa, held the podium for 29 of the orchestra's first 100 years.

1916–1933: Ludwig Becker
1933–1936: Frank Kendrie
1936–1937: Frank Laird Waller
1938–1949: Oscar Anderson
1949–1954: Harry John Brown
1954–1956: Piero Bellugi
1956–1965: Charles Gigante
1965–1994: James Dixon
1995–1997: Kim Allen Kluge
1999–2007: Donald Schleicher
2008–present: Mark Russell Smith

Centennial Hall, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL

Adler Theater, Davenport, IA

2016-17 Season:

October:

Richard Strauss: Don Juan
Michael Daugherty: Reflections on the Mississippi
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony #3 (Eroica) 

A note from David Hurwitz's review of the premiere recording in Classics Today: "The Daugherty is obviously the reason for releasing this disc, but its 20 minutes hardly suffices for an entire CD, and so someone had the not very bright idea of coupling Reflections on the Mississippi with Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony....What business has this symphony sharing a disc with the Daugherty? It simply couldn’t be more superfluous." That kind of sums up my feeling about this concert; it just doesn't fit together right. Scoring: 13

November:

Tobias Picker: Old and Lost Rivers
Bedrich Smetana: Moldau
Felix Mendelssohn: Scherzo, Nocturne, and Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto #2

Here we have two "river pieces" (although Smetana entitled it Vltava--let's get with the Czechs!), some incidental music and a concerto unrelated to the rest. Scoring: 13 (the inclusion of Picker doesn't make up for "Moldau"--the title, not the piece, especially in the city of the National Czech and Slovak Museum!)

December:

George Frederick Handel: Water Music Suite
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto, Op. 85
Robert Schumann: Symphony #3 "Rhenisch" 

Scoring: Easy peasy: 10

February:

Modest Mussorgsky/Rimsky Korsakov: Dawn on the Moscow River
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto #5
Michael Abels: World Premiere Commission
Mozart: Symphony #38 in D Major, "Prague"
Johann Strauss: Blue Danube Waltz 

OK, everyone knows the Mozart Concerto, the Prague Symphony, and the Blue Danube Waltz(es)--that's what he titled it. Michael Abels writes, "I'm inspired by the idea of water as a commodity. I've long wanted to write a piece inspired by the idea of panning for gold, the sense of finding precious things inside a continuous flow of water. In the 21st Century, we discover that the precious thing is actually the water itself, not so much what is sifted out of it." In a concert entitled "Joined By A River," What's the connection between Mozart and the rest? (Yes, there is a river in Prague called Vltava--not the Moldau--but Wolfie wasn't writing about that.)  Scoring (this is a toughie): it doesn't follow the "format" but the Strauss is kind of tacked on at the end. 17

March:

Richard Wagner: Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey from "Götterdammerung"
Richard Struss: Four Last Songs
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from "Tristan und Isolde"
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloë Suite #2

River of Life? I'm only discounting this performance because all these works are very well known.  Scoring: 15

April:

Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion

From the QCSO website: Six vocal soloists, two organs, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Handel Oratorio Society and Quad City Choral Arts will amass on our concert stages. Amass? Uh-oh.... All told, the "mass" could include nearly 300 singers, in BIG HALLS. The purist in me comes out again. Give me a HIP (historically-informed performance) replacement!  10

Total score: 78

Divisor: 6

Aggregate: 13

WCF Symphony (History)

The orchestra was founded in the fall of 1929 by G.T. Bennett, Director of the East Waterloo High School Orchestra; Ralph Pronk, director of the West Waterloo High School Orchestra; Cressy Whalen, then president of the Waterloo Musicians Union; and the late Myron Russell, emeritus head of the School of Music at the University of Northern Iowa. Our first name was ‘Waterloo Symphony Orchestra’. Our first concert was held at East High School, Thursday, February 6, 1930, with Mr. Bennett as conductor, sharing the honor with Mr. Pronk. This first concert featured two soloists: Mr. William E. Hayes, tenor and Myron Russell, English horn, both from Iowa State Teachers College.

For many years, the symphony played in Waterloo West High School's Kersenbrock Auditorium. A partnership with the University of Northern developed office space as well as the vastly improved Great Hall at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on the UNI campus.

The orchestra has had sixteen conductors since its founding. G.T. Bennett and Ralph Pronk conducted the first two concerts and Dr. Edward Kurtz, the head of the Orchestra Department at Iowa State Teachers College, was made official conductor in 1931. A particularly difficult time followed the the departure of Joseph Giunta (now with the Des Moines Symphony) in 1992. Four conductors held the podium in the ten-year span that ended with the hiring of Jason Weinberger in 2002.

Edward Kurtz 1931-1935
George Dasch 1935-1944
Jeanette Sheerer 1944-1947
Otto Jelinek 1947-1955
Matys Abas 1955-1958
Myron Russell 1958-1971
Donald Wendt (Acting Music Director) 1971-1972
Lathon Jernigan (Resident Conductor) 1972-1974
Joseph Giunta (Music Director and Conductor) 1974-1992
Elizabeth Schulze (Music Director and Conductor) 1994-1997
John LoPiccolo (Music Director and Conductor) 1998-1999
Jack Graham (Acting Music Director and Conductor) 1999-2000
Richard Rosenberg (Music Director and Conductor) 2000-2001
Jason Weinberger (Artistic Director and CEO) 2002-present

Waterloo (IA) West High Auditorium (post renovation), now state-of-the-art
Not so before the new millennium

The Great Hall, Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA

2016-17 Season:

WCF Symphony

October:

Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons: Summer & Fall
Max Richter – The Four Seasons Recomposed: Summer & Fall

In an NPR interview, composer Max Richter notes, "The first thing that was sort of difficult — and I wasn't expecting this, actually — was trying to understand who I was at each moment of writing it," he says. "That sounds a bit crazy, but in the piece, there are sections which are just Vivaldi, where I've left it alone. I've done sort of a production on 'Autumn,' but I've left the notes. And there other bits where there's basically only a homeopathic dose of Vivaldi in this completely new music," he says. "So I have to figure out how much Max and how much Vivaldi there was going on at every moment."

This will be performed--as are all of the orchestra's "chamber" programs--at Waterloo's historic Brown Derby Ballroom.  Scoring: 18 (I don't know the Richter, but I've heard others "mess" with this timeworn Vivaldi.   

October:

John Williams – Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban
Sergei Prokofiev – Peter and the Wolf, final scenes
Béla Bartók – Miraculous Mandarin, Suite selections
Edvard Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt
Modest Mussorgsky – Night on Bare Mountain arr Rimsky-Korsakov
Paul Price-Brenner – World premiere 

Conductor Weinberger enjoys presented modern "classics" or film music alongside works that have inspired them. As Williams is among the most derivative of all (a major complaint), snippets of these sounds will be found in his scores. That said, it's brave to offer selections from the Miraculous Mandarin. The rest? Pop fare. Another tough one to score. Scoring: Rep: -3 Total 17

February:

Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons: Winter & Spring
Max Richter – The Four Seasons Recomposed: Winter & Spring

Part Two. See above. 18

April:

Charles Tomlinson Griffes – The White Peacock
Aaron Copland – Appalachian Spring
Adam Schoenberg – Scatter Concerto with PROJECT Trio

I like this show--a lot. Griffes didn't write enough; it's a fabulous piece. My only 20.

April:

Theodor Kirchner – Nur Tropfen (adapted by Jason Weinberger for string orchestra)
Robert Schumann – Introduction and Allegro with Rachel Kudo, piano
Clara Schumann – Konzertsatz with Rachel Kudo, piano
Johannes Brahms – Symphony no. 1 

So Robert Schumann championed Kirchner and Clara was fond of him. He also arranged works of Brahms and created the first vocal score for the German Requiem. And yet, remains largely unknown to contemporary audiences. Connections abound in this program of mid-to-late nineteenth century works. The Schumann work(s) are not the best known; the audience is going to discover that Clara was a heck of a composer. The composers (sans Kirchner) are from the canon, but only the Brahms First is a part. 18 points for such originality!

Total: 91

Divisor: 5

Aggregate: 18.2

Stay tuned. There will be a closing article on the "final standings" as well as some interesting trends this year.