Once Every 23 Years is Not Enough
Saturday night, 2/6, The CSO played the Vaughan-Williams Fifth Symphony.
The first half of the concert was very nice, with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Cappricio
Espanol followed by Mozart’s Piano Concerto #20 played by Shai Wosner.
The Russian’s impressions of Spain were brought home by Patricia Dash’s
banging of castinets on her thighs.
But the amazing thing for me was Vaughan-Williams. I’ve never seen it
live and I’m probably only vaguely familiar with the third and fourth movements
from listening to WFMT. It was performed by the CSO in 1987, but I don’t
think I was a subscriber that year .
It has some really beautiful string passages and they’re accented by wind
and brass as only Vaughan-Williams can do. The oboe, English horn,
piccolo (Jennifer Gunn), brass and Concertmaster (David Taylor, that night)
got kudos during three rounds of applause.
It’s not too late to get a ticket for Tuesday, 2/9.
–
Bruce
