Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé

Billed as “Symphonie Espagnole” and replete with the aurally enticing intermingling of lyricism and rhythm of “Spanish” music by composers who weren’t Spanish, last Saturday evening’s performance by the Ridgefield Symphony was arguably the crowning jewel of this season’s classical RSO programs. Maestro Gerald Steichen’s offerings included Emmanuel Chabrier’s Espagña, Alberto Ginastera’s Molambo from Estancia, Ernesto Lecuona’s Andalucia Suite, Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole, and Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, with the young violin virtuoso Chad Hoopes as soloist. In addition, nineteen young dancers from the Ridgefield Civic Ballet provided visual enhancement for the energetic rhythms of Ginastera’s Molambo.

Maestro Steichen and the orchestra were in fine form throughout the evening, but especially in the program’s first half. With its songlike melodies and dancing rhythms enhanced by Steichen’s sensitive control of nuances and balances and by outstanding sectional playing, Chabrier’s Espagňa was a perfect choice to open the program.

The second half was enriched by what has become the RSO’s commendable collaboration with other local arts organizations, including The Ridgefield Guild of Artists, The Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance, and the Ridgefield Civic Ballet. The RCB’s brightly dressed young dancers, along with the lively artwork behind the orchestra, provided a wonderful visual enhancement for the rhythmical Ginastera Molambo, and the inclusion of promising young Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra musicians in the performance (an annual practice that has become yet another commendable way of enhancing this fine organization’s worth in the Ridgefield community) provided another dimension for audience appreciation. This concert’s fine young WCYO performers were violinists Gavin Belok, Tahlia Cott, Natalie Marks, and harpist Dana Tufariello.

Eighteen-year-old violinist Chad Hoopes’s age can’t be cited as an apology for any artistic shortcomings, because he doesn’t have any. His performance of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole called forth unprecedented applause at the end of each of the concerto’s first three movements and an entirely merited standing ovation (along with multiple bravos) at the end. With excellent support from the orchestra under Maestro Steichen, whose exceptional skill working with soloists, whether vocal or instrumental, has become expected, Chad played with an artistic understanding of the music he was playing that defies argument, a corresponding and sensitive control of nuances, articulation and phrasing, flawless intonation, and a technical mastery that brought it all together. He had obviously made Lalo’s music his own and was therefore able not just to play it, but to communicate its essence as well. One of my knowledgeable guests at the concert commented that she would go “just about anywhere” to hear him play again, and I think that I would too.

RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Saturday, December 1, 2012

Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé

    The entertainment level of last Saturday evening's Ridgefield Symphony concert at the high school's Anne Richardson Auditorium could make a good case for serving up "A Night at the Opera" as an annual Ridgefield treat.  Lyric soprano Yunah Lee and tenor William Joyner joined Maestro Steichen for the occasion in a varied program of theatrical music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Francesco Cilea, Alfredo Catalani, Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Scott Joplin, Gian Carlo Menotti, Gilbert and Sullivan, Emmanuel Chabrier, Franz Lehar, Richard Strauss, and Jules Massenet.
    With the sort of well-managed readings we have come to expect from him, Maestro Steichen led his musicians in six orchestral selections, including contrasting overtures to Verdi's Nabucco and Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, and evoked particularly fine playing in the Rakoczy March from Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, the Danse slave from Chabrier's Le roi malgre lui, and the Moonlight Interlude from Richard Strauss's Capriccio, with its lovely horn solo beautifully played by Sara Della Posta.
    Yunah Lee is a delight for both eyes and ears, with an engaging stage presence and a warm, solidly supported and focused lyric soprano voice that she manages with sensitive control from her lowest to her highest notes.  Tenor William Joyner's voice is also warm, well managed, and focused, particularly in its middle range, and both artists underpinned their musical performance with impressive dramatic skill, especially in their Tosca and Manon love scenes; and their individual arias were fine as well, with particular kudos for Mr. Joyner's handling of “Federico's Lament” from Cilea's L'Arlésiana and Lehar's “Du bist meine Sonne” and Ms. Joyner's impressively different moods in Menotti's wistful "Steal me, sweet thief" and Lehar's rather naughty "Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss."
    All in all it was top-level entertainment, capped by a memorable duet encore -- Leonard Bernstein's lovely "Tonight" from his Broadway hit West Side Story.

RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Saturday, October 13, 2012

Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé

Ridgefield Symphony Music Director Jerry Steichen proved once again last Saturday evening at Ridgefield High School’s auditorium that in addition to his current primary role in Ridgefield as a skilled and sensitive “classical” conductor, he is also a first-rate entertainer and master of ceremonies, possessing a quick wit, impressive timing, and a natural charisma. The occasion was the RSO’s second concert this season and the first of its two evenings devoted to popular music, this time featuring selections by John Williams, unquestionably the most prolific and successful film score composer of all time. Drawing on a wide range of selections from the scores of films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Harry Potter films, MC and Conductor Steichen and the orchestra were joined by tenor Greg Mills for a program focusing on both the artistry and the remarkable variety of John Williams’s music.

With uniformly fine playing by the orchestra and informative and often amusing comments about Williams and his music by Steichen, the whole program was first-rate entertainment. High points were aplenty, though. Although better amplification of Greg Mills’s excellent voice would have been welcome, his lyrical and dramatic deliveries of “Somewhere in My Memory” from Home Alone, “For Always” from Artificial Intelligence, and perhaps best of all (standing in for Lois Lane) the moving “Can You Read My Mind” from Superman were both dramatic and beautiful.

“Joy Ride”, featuring a solo jazz trio with Paul Cohen (saxophone), Dave Smith (vibes), and Kevin Callaghan (double bass) was also outstanding, and the evening’s pièce de résistance was the Theme from Schindler’s List, with the RSO’s wonderful concertmaster Jorge Avila’s warmly sensitive (and flawless) solo playing calling forth a spontaneous standing ovation. A special additional treat was the guest appearance of the Ridgefield Playhouse’s Executive Director Allison Stockel, winner of this year’s Golden Baton Award, who, baton in left hand, did a fine job leading the orchestra in the selection from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ridgefield is fortunate to have a professional quality musical organization like the RSO, capable of both edifying and entertaining out audiences with fine music of all kinds, from Bach and Beethoven to John Williams and beyond.

Source: Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra (http://www.theridgefieldpress.com/) by Courtenay Caublé

RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Saturday, September 22, 2012

Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé

The Ridgefield Symphony’s first 2012-13 subscription concert last Saturday evening at the Anne Richardson Auditorium proved to be an especially auspicious one, with guest pianist Richard Dowling joining RSO Music Director Gerald Steichen for a performance of Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 in F minor in a program that also included Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz Overture and Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major.

Maestro Steichen delineated von Weber’s vivid orchestration in the Overture masterfully, especially in the noble introductory section, with its firm bass foundation and rich overall brass sonorities, but elsewhere as well, with particularly fine playing from both the brass and woodwind sections.

All four movements of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 abound with engaging dance rhythms, some of them gently flowing and others sharp and energetic, and Maestro Steichen managed and unified them, passionate and meditative by turn, with flexible tempos and clarifying detail. The whole performance also profited from Steichen’s evocation of a well-controlled range of sonorities, from pervasive warmth in the second movement to sparkling brilliance in the fourth; and lovely woodwind playing, especially in the interplay of winds in the slow movement, further enhanced overall performance quality. Sectional brass playing was unusually notable too, held under sufficient control so that the conclusion’s unleashing of combined brass sonorities came through with a particularly telling effect.

With everything else first rate, though, pianist Richard Dowling’s performance of Chopin’s Concerto No. 2, with noteworthy help from Maestro Steichen and the RSO, was the evening’s highlight. Dowling is an exceptional Chopin interpreter, with the sort of greater emphasis on lyrical flow and expressiveness than on virtuosic bombast that contemporary accounts suggest was characteristic of Chopin’s own playing.

After a lengthy first-movement orchestral introduction, the concerto is essentially an accompanied piano solo, and Maestro Steichen’s special training as an accompanist, along with Dowling’s attentive interaction with the orchestra, led to a very fine musical collaboration. Dowling uses exceptional pianistic control to give voice to sensitive interpretive taste, floating Chopin’s expansive lyricism with defining nuance control and fluently executing the composer’s famous stylistic embroidery to integrate it unobtrusively into lyrical phrases without intruding on them. If any segment could be particularly cited in an exemplary overall performance, it would have to be the meltingly expressive slow movement, which was beautifully done.

But that wasn’t all. In response to insistent applause, Dowling graciously returned to the piano to offer a solo encore, Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2, which he managed with expressive elegance until (suddenly, unexpectedly, and to his audience’s delight) he rocketed off into a piano-pounding series of jazz variations on the Nocturne’s lyric theme. It was a delightful hoot that brought the audience to its feet for an enthusiastic ovation.

All in all, Saturday evening’s performance was among the RSO’s best ever – and a very enticing sample of what this new RSO season may yet have in store.

Source: RIDGEFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Saturday, September 22, 2012 (www.theridgefieldpress.com) by Courtenay Caublé

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