Orchestras Sparkle in “Gift of Music” Concert

With a capacity audience on Saturday night, December 3, Seto Hall reverberated with the resonant sounds of  Orchestras IV and V.

Joan Wehrman directed Orchestra IV in an interesting selection of pieces for string orchestra, opening with Paul Whear’s “Concertino for Strings” which featured individual sections of the orchestra.

Three movements from Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” followed, a continuation from last year’s start of the multi-movement piece, this year featuring pianists Jeff Sakamoto and Dianna Dai and guest ‘cellist from Orchestra V, Dillon Powers, producing a smooth and graceful image of a swan.

This was followed by a stirring rendition of three Hebrew songs in a medley “Shabbat Shalom”. Their portion of the program concluded with a medley/sing along of “Deck the Halls”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Up on the Housetop” which was sung with great enthusiasm by the audience.

Orchestra V, under the baton of  new director, Kathy Hafner, performed a variety of music, using the resources of the wind and percussion players from Band 4. The sound was fantastic.

The technique of the string players was matched by the winds in the opening piece, Saint-Saëns “Marche Militaire Francaise”.

This stirring martial piece was followed by Bach’s chorale “Wachet suf, ruft uns die Stimme” from his Cantata 140, a complete contrast from the opening piece, featuring a very smoothly performed chorale melody, surrounded by an intricate melodic part played by the higher strings and woodwinds, all supported by the interesting bass line. 

The concert continued with what probably is the most famous of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, No. 8. This rousing dance was a perfect show piece for this group. Musically it was great, but what really set it off was the enthusiasm displayed by the students. 

Peter Warlock’s “Pavane” and “Basse-Danse” from his “Capriol Suite” again established a great deal of contrast to keep the audience in absolute awe. 

The last selection on the program was “Les Toreadors” from Bizet’s “Carmen Suite No. 1”. The rousing Spanish- style bull-fight arena music opening following by the melodic “Toreador Song” was an audience pleaser.

The students enjoyed playing this and their enthusiasm came through clearly. The audience was just as enthusiastic with their prolonged applause. As one orchestra member said after the concert, “Whoa, we really were good!”