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David Bui |
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When & Where Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 2pm | Orpheum Theatre Conductor David Bui Host Christopher Gaze
Program: Reviewer John Anthony Jane |
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This was the first Tea & Trumpets concert of 2025 and the third in the current series. It’s always a good idea to start a concert of music by various composers with an overture and Gioachino Rossini's Overture to The Thieving Magpie is arguably one of the best known and was even used in the Batman Video Game Score. It is certainly better known than the opera itself. Rossini's lengthy Overture definitely appropriates the pomp and pathos of the opera. I enjoy how the strings and percussion alternate. The piece distinguishes itself with a bright and spirited pace and the growing crescendo. Native Australian Arthur Benjamin actually has a previous connection with the VSO. He directed the orchestra as a guest conductor a number of times during the nineteen- forties. His Jamaican Rumba has a light, airy feel and is often heard as a violin solo. Staying in the Caribbean, we get to hear the second overture of the afternoon with George Gershwin's Cuban Overture. Originally entitled Rumba, the piece has similar characteristics and jazz inflection as Rhapsody in Blue. Featuring a solo clarinet, the tune’s breezy opening quickly departs to give way to a rather lethargic pace. Next we heard Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's enchanting Valse from his first ballet Swan Lake. Who hasn’t had goosebumps when watching this first act classical dance performed? Perhaps a close second is is hearing the piece live by this orchestra’s musicians. A complete departure is Eric Coates' Knightsbridge March. It’s actually the third movement in a work entitled The London Suite. Coates obviously drew on his own experience in composing this piece. The London district of Knightsbridge is famous for its exclusive retail stores (including Harrod’s) and its proximity to Horseguards’ barracks. The final piece in the advertised program was John Williams' Star Wars: Suite for Orchestra. The iconic Main Theme holds a special place in the hearts of sci-fi fans. Like Holst’s Planet Suite, it is truly evocative of interplanetary travel. Williams’ timeless score is instantly recognizable and synonymous with the Star Wars film franchise. By way of a short encore, the orchestra played us out with Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance from his ballet Gayane. Maestro David Bui also led the orchestra in three other works that are not normally heard in a symphony concert setting: Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Leroy Anderson's The Typewriter - that featured Vern Griffiths “playing” an actual manual typewriter and Richard Hayman's Pops Hoedown, a medley of ‘American cowboy’ tunes. © 2025 John Anthony Jane |
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