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I grew up in Philadelphia listening to Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra. I lived near San Francisco for 28 years, listening to the San Francesco Symphony. The ASU symphony is right up there with the best! Really! Also the soloist, Moyi Liu playing the Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody was superb. Add to this the very low ticket price and ease of finding good seats, and I had a great evening.
Thursday's concert brought compositions from the early 19th century to this very year with a world premiere. ASU's large ensemble presented an aggressively modern piece by Carlos Zarate, who described it to be like a sparse sculpture through which light penetrates (my interpretation of his words). It began robustly with waves of atonal-arhythmic imagery, then settled down to calmer, sometimes whispered, soundscapes which reminded me of the light-show part of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Next was a Samuel Barber piece for orchestra and soprano solo, sung by Michelle Perez, a doctoral student at the school, with a beautiful, auditorium-filling voice. "Knoxville: Summer of 1915"takes its text from a James Agee novel, a young boy's recollection of an evening with his family lying on quilts in the back yard of their home, their voices quiet and "meaningless like the voices of sleeping birds". The text and music mix to invoke horse-carts and streetcars clopping by, the stars arching overhead, and ultimately, an observation that these experiences are mystical but cannot "tell me who I am". Next on the program was a bassoon concerto by Berhard Crusell, a composer working in the period overlapping both Mozart and Beethoven. The soloist was Bradley Johnson, a faculty member (I think the program said) from NAU, who navigated the trippingly fast notes breathtakingly on the velvety voice of the bassoon. His cheering section, seated just to my left, was loudly appreciative. After intermission, the full orchestra returned for a magnificent performance of Pictures at an Exhibition, the classic Ravel-Mussorgsky version, with Joann Falletta of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra guest-conducting. The piece has many tricky featured instrument parts and each soloist delivered glowingly. If there was a theme to the entire concert, it highlighted the way music evokes visual imagery, from cinema to memoir to museum, and this orchestra presented it well.
The arrangements and execution of each piece were flawless
My family and I attended the concert this past Saturday (Sept. 16) and it was phenomenal. I have not had that much fun in a long time. The ASU Symphony, ASU Mariachi Ensemble, and Mariachi Garibaldi played incredible music and we found ourselves singing, dancing, and clapping along to the music. We loved it and I would recommend highly that you go and experience one of the ASU Symphony performances whenever there is another opportunity. They are incredible. Thank you.
I took my parents and my family not knowing what to except. Let’s just say the whole family loved it. The mariachi music, the singing, the song choices, everything was absolutely spectacular! Thank you all so much for this event we enjoyed it very much!
Easy parking at the Madison. Take the lift, and walk perhaps thirty steps to the foyer -- a large, bright, welcoming foyer. Easy access to seats. Friendly, helpful staff. Concert itself was top-notch. Short but appropriate comments by the conductor before each piece. Orchestra sharp, precise, even with a couple of difficult selections.
Outstanding orchestra recital! Enjoyed it from the beginning to the very end! The cello solo can not be put into words... Breathtaking!
The performance was as fine as any you would hear anywhere else, yet these students and the conductors only had a few weeks to prepare!
