Joseph Silverstein Conducts
Joseph Silverstein, the distinguished former concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and an experienced conductor, did a nice job of opening the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra’s 15th anniversary season Sunday at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria. The ensemble, drawn from the National Symphony Orchestra, kept everything within a well-defined musical comfort zone, favoring time-tested masterworks over edgy contemporary fare.
Eclipse hung the program on the rondo, the popular 18th-century musical form that continually departs from and returns to an initial baseline theme.
A fine if not sizzling account of Schubert’s Rondo in A for Violin and Strings, D.438, began the concert with Silverstein as the deft violin soloist. Silverstein and the players warmed up in Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K.218, which was alternately dramatic and detailed. Particularly in the finale (no shock here: a rondo), the reading never lost the forest for the trees and moved along at a good clip.
The unique find of the day was Stravinsky’s Concerto in D, a propulsive string essay straight out of the composer’s neoclassical period. Yet it took Haydn’s Symphony No. 95 in C Minor to bring the afternoon in focus.
All those rondos, it turns out, were a buildup to the finale. Here, the rondo arrived at something of an apotheosis with beautifully intricate and strong themes going off in unexpected directions.
Daniel Ginsberg
The Washington Post
Brandenburg Festival
It’s probably impossible to escape the Brandenburg Concertos. These six works by Bach are a touchstone of our musical language; they’re constantly on the radio and in films, and television producers trot them out whenever they need a touch of culture. Even the residents of Betelgeuse may hum them by now – one’s on the famous “Golden Record” that Voyager carried into space back in 1977.
Yet no matter how often they’re heard, the Brandenburgs never really get stale, as the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra demonstrated on Sunday at St. Patrick’s Episcopal church. Under the energetic direction of Sylvia Alimena, the group has mounted an annual Brandenburg Festival for the past four years. It always captures the joy and exuberance that keeps this music so amazingly fresh.
Playing without a conductor, the musicians opened strongly with Concerto No. 3 in G. Despite a slightly smeary start, they soon found a fine balance between delicacy and driving power, building layer upon layer of Bach’s exhilarating counterpoint into an unstoppable juggernaut of sound.
The rest of the program was equally satisfying. These are all virtuoso pieces, and the Eclipse players (most of whom are with the National Symphony Orchestra) handled the technical demands with style. Harpsichordist William Neil turned in a fine and focused reading of the Concerto No. 5 in D; the interplay between flutists Carole Bean and Alice Weinreb in Concerto No. 4 in G was a real delight; and violinists Elisabeth Adkins, Paula Akbar and Holly Hamilton all shone. A perfect reminder of why the Brandenburgs will continue to endure – even, perhaps, on Betelgeuse.
Stephen Brookes
The Washington Post
ALEXANDRIA ARTS LOVERS
On October 26, 2006, the Alexandria Commission for the Arts presented its 2006 “Alex Awards” in a ceremony at the Dr. Oswald Durant Memorial Center. The awards recognized individuals and organizations for their exceptional contributions to Alexandria’s cultural life. Alexandria’s Mayor Bill Euille presented the “Excellence in An Artistic Discipline Award” to Sylvia Alimena, Music Director, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.
Alexandria Gazette