Ridgefield Press
RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Saturday, February 2,
2008
Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé
With only one of the four finalists for the Ridgefield
Symphony’s soon-to-be-appointed new Music Director still in
the wings, anticipation mounts for both the orchestra and
its audiences. Last Saturday evening’s energetic and
charismatic Maestro was Spanish-born José-Luis Novo, who
immediately charmed and amused his audience by commenting
that as a “candidate,” he felt that we should know something
about him: that he isn’t a Mormon or an African American,
but that he had considered including “an emotional moment”
in his opening remarks.
About the evening’s music, which included Maurice Ravel’s
Mother Goose Suite and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G
Major, with soprano Audrey Luna as the guest soloist, he
emphasized both composers’ legendary expertise at
orchestration – the art of using an orchestra’s individual
and combined voices and tone colors to telling effect. “So,”
Maestro Novo quipped, “if you hear any bad sounds, don’t
blame the composers.”
Happily, there were no bad sounds. The rich orchestral
coloration of both Ravel’s and Mahler’s wonderful scores
provided not only a special listening pleasure, but also a
hard-to-beat opportunity for Maestro Novo to exhibit both
his sensitivity as an interpreter and his skill as a
conductor. Like a fine organist pulling out all the right
stops at the right times, he evoked, blended, and balanced
the myriad moods and subtly shifting colors of Ravel’s
lace-like music to bring it to life for his audience.
And richly enhanced by Audrey Luna’s lovely soprano voice
and sensitive interpretation of the verses describing the
joys of Heaven in the final movement, Novo’s management of
the RSO’s fine individual, sectional, and full orchestral
playing in the Mahler Symphony showcased his skill as a
conductor while bringing out the passing beauties and
clarifying the overall integrity of Mahler’s score. And in
addition to Ms. Luna’s memorable artistry, kudos must also
go to a number of individual orchestral soloists and to the
fine solo work of concertmaster Mary Ann Meade.
The fourth Music Director finalist, Christopher Confessore,
will be on the podium for the RSO’s last regular
subscription concert on April 5, which will also feature
pianist Andrew Armstrong as soloist for Beethoven’s Concerto
No. 3 in C minor.
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