Concert worth hearing, and one I wish I heard
Two very different classical-music experiences this week featuring different sections of the orchestra (sorry, woodwinds). First up, let’s talk about strings as the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park welcomed the Díaz Trio. Then we’ll get to the brass and percussion with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
Trio is a treat
There was a substitute in the Díaz Trio lineup Thursday night in Tiedtke Hall at Rollins College.
Viola player Roberto
Díaz wasn’t traveling for COVID-19 safety reasons, Bach Festival artistic director John Sinclair announced, so Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt played with violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist Andrés Díaz.
From the tightness of the playing you would have thought the three of them had always been an ensemble (Pajaro-van de Stadt studied with Roberto Díaz).
Generally, it’s thrilling to hear the individual instruments in orchestral playing, but on Schubert’s Allegro in B-flat Major, the amazement came from how seamlessly the three blended. At times, you couldn’t tell where one string ended and the next began. Only the register of the instruments gave them away, with Cárdenes’ violin expertly driving the melody.
But Cárdenes certainly doesn’t hog all the glory. In Ernst von Dohnányi’s Serenade, the cello brought the drama in the first movement, while the second saw the viola taking the lead with a deliciously rich sound.
Beethoven’s String Trio in G Major hummed with vitality, building to beautiful agitation in the Scherzo before a triumphant race to the Presto finale.
To watch this concert at home ($19.99 single viewer, $29.99 multiple viewers), go to bachfestivalflorida.org.
Can you hear me now?
Monday night, I checked out the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s Focus Series, which staged a concert titled “An Evening of Fanfare.” For me, unfortunately, it was more an evening of engine revving.
Let me say immediately that I admire the Philharmonic for doing whatever it can to get live music to the people in these crazy times, so holding a concert in a parking lot makes sense. But perhaps in the organization’s zeal to reach as many music lovers as possible, it overplayed its hand.
Though I appreciated that the seats were correctly distanced, mine was in the very back of the lot and very close to Bumby Avenue — which has a surprisingly high volume of loud traffic on a weekday evening.
So even though the concert featured the orchestra’s brass and percussion sections, the music was mostly heard through the din of street noise and the humming of food-truck motors.
As directed by Michael P. Atkinson, a suite from “Porgy and Bess” had pizazz, especially “I
Got Plenty O’Nuttin’,” which sounded fresh off a Mississippi paddleboat. Beethoven’s “Wellington’s Victory” provided drama with unusual percussion and humor with its variations on “God Save the King” but most of the rest was lost on me.
It’s likely not financially feasible — and isn’t it swell that the demand for orchestral music is so high? — but it would be nice if the Philharmonic could sell fewer tickets to keep concertgoers closer to the music and farther from the motors.