Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Art Occurrence 2

Last night I attended the faculty concert given by the Music department. The concert was given at John M. Tiedtke Hall and begun at 7:30pm. Because the concert consisted of various members of the music faculty the range in styles of the music performed was very wide.

The concert began with a Schubert trio for Piano, Voice, and Clarinet. In my opinion, it lasted too long. It was very good but I wish Schubert had put more ideas into the piece. It was rather repetitive and became boring. Next was Mr. Norito Irei performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2. This sonata had always been one of my favorite pieces and Norito played it very well. It is also very long but the intensity and musical ideas throughout the work make it very exciting and enjoyable for the audience. It was my favorite piece of the evening. Following that there were a few vocal works and a piece for violin and piano. The violin piece was by Henri Viextemps and was very virtuosic. It proved to be a big crowd pleaser as the audience lit up with applause after it ended. Following a few more vocal selections was a guitarist playing some very nice jazz melodies by Duke Ellington and Maurice Jarre. Preceding the final number of the concert was a piece for English horn and Electroacoustic music. This was by far the most interesting of the whole concert. Mr. Aaron Hilburn performed the piece on his English horn with his speakers and computer set up playing the almost sci-fi-like sounds to go with it. This piece also proved to be a crowd pleaser. The final piece in the recital was “Go the Distance” from Hercules being sung by James Ray. His voice was very strong and could easily be mistaken for the actual actor in the movie. The ending to the piece was dramatic and convincing. You could tell everyone enjoyed the performance because everyone left the concert singing Hercules. All things considered, the faculty put together a very nice concert.

1 comment:

  1. good grief, Hercules and Schubert on the same bill. Quite the combination.

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