Reviews

Symphonicity: Masterworks: In a Dream
Thursday, February 10, 2022, Sandler Center
Review by John Campbell

Music Director and Conductor Daniel W. Boothe led an exciting and complex evening of music titled Hidden Treasures: In a Dream. Opening with Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1787) Serenade No. 13, A Little Night Music captures the delightful sounds of Vienna that we now associate with New Year's Day. Boothe danced through the four movements, leading the string orchestra with panache.

In a spoken introduction, the conductor told us of Laura Zaerr's Celtic Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (c. 2000) and then introduced harpist Vince Zentner. Ms. Zaerr's sixteen-minute suite is an arrangement of seven Irish melodies for solo Celtic harp (Celtic harps have levers rather than pedals) and chamber orchestra (strings, flute and oboe). Here the folk tunes take on a fuller sound than we're used to. After a flute or oboe plays the familiar tune, the strings add depth and richness. It all went down easily. Often the sounds suggested a country fair with fiddles and dancing while sad tunes evoked tears. It all concluded with a grand crescendo. Harpist Zentner's solo passages were beautifully played and the smooth blending with the orchestra in shared passages was seamless.

Composer Laura Zaerr teaches both pedal and folk harp at the University of Oregon where she took her bachelor's degree. Her masters degree is from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Eileen Malone. Her music of Celtic tunes can be found on CD.

Music by American composer Eric Whitacre followed intermission. Whitacre's music is familiar to local listeners; the Virginia Chorale has performed several of his works. He's one of the world's best known choral composers/conductors. He is famous for his virtual choirs which have engaged thousands of singers and listeners. In Deep Field Whitacre paired stunning projected imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope with choral music that attempts to capture the impossible magnitude of the universe of which the Earth is a tiny part.

The film projected on the back wall of the stage behind and above the orchestra and chorus was awe-inspiring. Focused on only one twenty-four millionth of the sky over an eleven day period, Hubble found 3,000 galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars—the deep field image. To match this grandeur the music was intense and often loud. Piano strikes rumbled in a melodic orchestral statement as the Spiral Nebula came into closer focus. The grandeur of the music enhanced by the chorus tracks our seeing the Hubble Telescope and the view of Earth, the blue planet, is reflected in the beauty of voices in a wordless vocalise. The edgy sound has quieted.

Chorus Master Nancy Klein has directed the Choral Program at Old Dominion University since 1986 and has seen the chorus double in size. Her worldwide travels as choral clinician and conductor have taken her to Notre Dame in Paris; St. Marks, Venice; and to Scotland, Luxembourg and New York City.

Moving into the last piece of the concert, Dreaming a World by Peter Boyer, the orchestra and adult chorus were joined by Virginia Children's Chorus, led by Founder and Artistic Director Carol Thomas Downing. Downing, who has taught children of all backgrounds to sing with joy, was joined by David L. Walker, Director of Percussion Studies at O.D.U. and ten other male percussionists and Sarah Williams. We have enjoyed Sarah's performances for a number of years with Walker and fellow students. She will graduate from ODU this semester with a Masters.

Coming on stage with Conductor Boothe were two narrators, Dr. Veronica Coleman, pastor and organizer of New Jerusalem Ministries of Virginia Beach and Vincent Schilling, a Native American who is an award-winning photojournalist and author. Both are outstanding citizens of Virginia Beach. Over the music they read texts by Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, César Chávez, John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi and words from a traditional Tewa Pueblo prayer.

The spoken Thanks to Mother Earth and a statement of joy in living was enhanced by drumming, influenced by both Native American and West African styles. A fanfare by the orchestra followed Coleman's “We have heard them, the voices, the strength of the human family, with prosperity for all.” “Gandhi taught us that you must be the change you want to see.” There was powerful dancing energy in the orchestra and a choral vocalise that evoked spontaneous applause.

The Virginia Children's Chorus came onto the left front of the stage and we heard a dialogue between the child voices and the adult orchestra and chorus leading to a crescendo of voices. The children left and the twelve drummers arrived, positioned across the front of the stage to play a variety of percussion instruments. The orchestra opened, the chorus joined in and the Children's Chorus appeared again. Rev. Coleman spoke of joy, all joy after Schilling intoned the Native American Prayer. The ending was big, glorious and enthralling! We left fulfilled by the joyous music.