I have been neglecting my blogging duties this summer. I will try to catch up on a few things I forgot to cover, starting tonight with the Russian Masterworks program at Boettcher hall, conducted by Scott O'Neill.
This was an absolutely fantastic program of 14 short works by Russian composers. All I could keep thinking throughout the concert was that those Russians were some badass orchestrators. The orchestra sounded great as always, but I always feel that O'Neill holds back as a conductor. Of course the "Great Gate of Kiev" is a piece I have heard performed numerous times, including live with fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl, so everything since then feels like a letdown. (We will be seeing it yet again next week.) The best thing about this concert is that there was a very healthy audience. This is the first time the orchestra has done a real summer season; I hope they continue.
Two weeks ago we went to the Mozart concert in Arvada, another concert in their series. The Arvada venue is horrible. O'Neill did a nice job with this concert, but it was all pieces that we had heard during their regular season in Boettcher. I'm not sure why they did this concert again, especially in a crappy outdoor venue that is small and has horrible acoustics. It's also about 50 feet from a main street with lots of traffic noise. It was nice however to hear A Little Night Music.
The last concert of the regular season that we attended was one I was in, so I did not review it. I sand in the chorus for two short Wagner excerpts. It was fun, and I hope to have the time to do that more frequently, but their rehearsal schedule is crazy. The rest of the concert was opera without the staging, which is pretty boring to watch, although they had a good house at that concert as well.
That's it for summer with the CSO, for us at least, we will see them again in September.
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