4/25/2007

MSO offers Diamond Jubilee season finale
By Tom Range, Sr.

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO) ended its 2006-2007 season with concerts held over the weekend of April 21-22.  The MSO's performance at the Community Church at Ocean Pines on Sunday began with a pre-concert talk by Thomas Longo, reminding the audience that the orchestra was completing its tenth season of presenting classical music to residents of the Delmarva Peninsula.

For this season-finale concert Maestro Julien Benichou, the music director, chose works by Maurice Ravel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  Mr. Longo likened this concert to participating in traveling a mountainous region with Ravel's "Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet," composed in 1905, as representing the foothills.  A manufacturer of harps and pianos commissioned this ensemble piece and therefore Ravel constructed it around the modern harp of 47 strings.  The pitch of the strings is controlled by a series of seven pedals.  Guest harpist Nicolas Tulliez ably presented the "Introduction and Allegro" which had been arranged with the other participating instruments supporting the harp, the largest of orchestral instruments. 

It is said that a small segment of the "Introduction and Allegro' was played in an episode of the TV series "Star Trek."  The passionless Mr. Spock was, perhaps for the only time in the series, attracted to a young female as the music played.  Such is the power of Ravel's romantic writings.  The composer visited the United States only once, in 1928 in which year he composed the ballet "Bolero," with its famous haunting music.  He died in Paris in 1937.

Mozart composed the "Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra" in 1778, when the composer was 22 years old.  It was commissioned by a French nobleman and flautist who wanted a concerto to play with his daughter, a harpist.  Mr. Tulliez was joined by Rachel Choe, MSO's principal flautist, in this 30 minute piece that, in the words of Tom Longo, transports the listener to higher elevations with breaks in the mountains containing meadows with birds swooping from tree to tree.  At the end of the Mozart concerto, the audience was treated to an encore, Ravel's "Habanera" played solely on the harp and flute of the soloists.

With Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, the listener is transported to the summits of the mountain range with high altitude clouds and swirling winds.  The symphony was written around 1877 and dedicated to the Russian composer's patron, Nadezhda Von Meck, the widow of a railroad tycoon.  As with many of Tchaikovsky's pieces, strains of Russian folksongs are intertwined.  In this case "In the Field Stands a Birch Tree" is incorporated in the fourth movement marked "Allegro con fuoco" translated as "happy with fire."

MSO Vice President Pat Barrett commented that the organization's first performance was held at the Ocean City Convention Center on November 22, 1997.  In spite of it being a rainy night about 350 classical music lovers attended this performance.  The MSO performed two concerts in its first year.  In the current season now drawing to a close, four concerts and two recitals were offered, each having been performed before a combined attendance of over 1,000 at three to four locations held throughout the fall, winter and spring months.  Other venues are the Avalon Theater in Easton and the Mariner Bethel Church in Ocean View, DE.
An indication of the truly international makeup of MSO's musicians is in the native origins of this concert's principals.  Both Maestro Benichou and Nicolas Tuilliez are natives of France.  Ms. Choe is a native of Korea.

Information on forthcoming concerts in the 2007-2008 season can be had at 1-888-846-8600.


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