News & Reviews

Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Review
Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé
Sunday, March 14, 2004

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s annual two-program Playhouse Series is a very special kind of treat. As I listened, along with the rest of last Sunday afternoon’s near-capacity audience, to the RSO (reduced for these performances to the dimensions of a “chamber” orchestra), I found myself once again agreeing in retrospect to a comment I once heard violinist Yehudi Menuhin make: “The only aesthetic pleasure greater than listening to fine chamber music is actually playing it.”

What he meant, of course, is that whereas intimacy may in some circumstances “breed contempt,” it immeasurably magnifies pleasure in one’s musical involvement. And although the Ridgefield Playhouse isn’t exactly a salon or “chamber,” its dimensions and wonderful acoustics qualify it as a worthy compromise.

Maestro Sidney Rothstein’s program Sunday afternoon included Beethoven’s Romance in G Major and Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major, both featuring young guest violinist Ayako Yoshida and (after intermission) Rossini’s Overture to La scala di seta and twentieth-century German composer Hermann Ambrosius’s Suite in G minor for chamber orchestra. The RSO’s Playhouse Concerts are presented by Union Savings Bank, and Sunday afternoon’s concert was sponsored in part by Jeanne Cook.

In both the Beethoven Romance and the Haydn C Major Concerto, as well as in her encore (“Praeludium 2001,” written by her current violin coach, Adonis Alvanis), Ms. Yoshida played with a firm and confident mastery of her instrument complemented (and made all the more evident) by her gracious and graceful stage manner. Her consistently firm, resonant tone quality, combined with sensitive phrasing and control of nuances, made the Beethoven Romance movingly expressive and captured all of the intrinsic loveliness of the Haydn concerto’s slow second movement cantilena, sung against a background provided by plucked strings and harpsichord. And she made the concerto’s lively first and last movements, which are typically “classical” enough in form and content to be less than thrilling when routinely played, spring fully to life with an authoritative virtuosity controlled by a sensitive response to harmonic contrasts and movement.

Ms. Yoshida’s unannounced encore (Adonis Alvanis’s Praeludium 2001), played in response to a well-deserved ovation, was both an interesting piece in itself and yet another showpiece for the soloist’s artistry. The unaccompanied piece, both intensely lyrical and occasionally polyphonic in feeling, included long segments featuring a “pedal point” (the effect of a sustained tone underneath a moving upper voice) produced by a repeated plucking of one string by a finger of the left hand, as well as other forms of violinistic self-accompaniment provided (for instance) by the use of double stops (with two or more tones played simultaneously). Ms. Yoshida’s whole performance left me hoping to hear her again soon.
As a former professional oboist, I have a special fondness for Rossini’s Overture to La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), which has a particularly prominent and challenging oboe part. Maestro Rothstein and the orchestra played it splendidly, and the principal oboist (Nicole Golay – new to the ensemble this time) played both the lyrical oboe solo in the slow introduction and the sparkling and rapidly articulated one in the main allegro segment masterfully. My companion this time – a German lady – called it “sehr zauber!” which means “very clean.” But “zauber,” when spelled with a capital Z, means “magic,” and it was that too.

Hermann Ambrosius’s Suite in G minor reminds me (in a way at least) of Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, which Prokofiev intended to reflect the way a Mozart symphony might sound if written today instead of in the eighteenth century. With an “Ouverture” and five dance movements paralleling those of a typical Baroque suite, the work echoes the atmosphere of an earlier age but with harmonies and harmonic movement somewhat closer to our time. Providing us with opportunities to hear worthy works of this sort is yet another of RSO Musical Director Rothstein’s contributions to our local culture.

Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Review
Reviewed by Courtenay Caublé
Saturday, February 7, 2004

It’s a small irony that (for the first time in quite a while) a slightly less than capacity audience was on hand last Saturday evening at the High School auditorium to enjoy some of the most impressive playing ever by the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. With sixteen-year-old virtuoso pianist Pauline Yang as guest soloist for the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Music Director Sidney Rothstein’s program of audience favorites also included Rossini’s Overture to L’italiana in Algeri and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The concert was sponsored in part by John and Patricia Grissmer, with the soloist sponsored by Walter and Sabina Slavin.
Both the concert and the magic began with the Rossini overture, with Maestro Rothstein introducing and surrendering the baton to the RSO’s new Assistant Conductor, Ankush Kumar Bahl. A communicatively lively and charismatic fellow, Mr. Bahl gave such a memorable debut performance as conductor that he moved someone behind me to echo my reaction in a whisper to his companion: “I really like that young conductor!”
Mr. Bahl didn’t just lead the orchestra; he provided a revealing interpretation that managed to be in turn both excitingly energetic and sensitively flexible in seeking out and communicating every subtle implicit nuance in the score. And the orchestra responded sensitively with arguably the most musically satisfying performance of the piece I’ve ever heard. All of the playing was equally lovely, but because of the prominence of the solo oboe, special kudos must go to principal oboist Dorothy Darlington for her exquisite playing.

Though Mr. Bahl’s act was a hard one to follow, pianist Pauline Yang, with the sort of perfect collaboration we’ve come to expect from Maestro Rothstein, managed it nicely. The orchestral backdrop was rich and sympathetically handled from beginning to end, and Pauline Yang’s solo performance was quite wonderful. Only just past her mid teens, Ms. Yang has a stage presence that exudes both charm and justifiable self confidence, and the power and flawless technical mastery that characterize her playing would be remarkable in an artist three times her age. As my own companion (herself an accomplished concert pianist) commented, “She has a brilliant technique; but more than that, she’s a sensitive and surprisingly mature musician. She feels what the music has to say, and she has the sort of control of her instrument that enables her to make the piano speak for her.” That says it all.

Saint-Saëns, himself both a sensitive musician and a brilliant pianist, brought together both musical loveliness and technical display in his second piano concerto, and he would have been pleased with how well Ms. Yang negotiated both and melded them into a coherent unity. Under her fingers the declamatory first movement was forceful, dramatic, and sensitively nuanced, the second movement playfully light and graceful, and the turbulent final tarantella a veritable whirlwind of excitement. The long standing ovation was well deserved.
One faulty (but nicely covered) solo woodwind entrance in the sprightly third movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was like the proverbial subtle beauty spot that calls attention to the loveliness that surrounds it. The work is one of Beethoven’s greatest, and Maestro Rothstein’s interpretation was a splendid one. Particularly fine were the whirling Finale that inspired Wagner to dub the work “The Apotheosis of the Dance” and the poignantly beautiful second movement, where Rothstein’s expertise clarified every nuance and nicely defined interweaving orchestral voices.

All in all, it was a particularly fine concert.

The RSO’s Ridgefield Playhouse concert on Sunday, March 14, will feature violinist Ayoko Yoshida and works by Haydn, Rossini, Beethoven, and Ambrosius, and the group’s next regular subscription concert (on Saturday, April 17) will be an all-orchestral one with works by Moncayo, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky.

Mozart program warms audience in Ridgefield
By Jim Pegolotti
NEWS TIMES MUSIC CORRESPONDENT
THE NEWS-TIMES, Friday, January 16, 2004

“Especially attractive was the second theme’s presentation, with its stately chords of brass and woodwinds following an underpinning of rapid movement in the basses and cellos. All this was performed with great skill.”

RIDGEFIELD – Music director Sidney Rothstein and the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra will take Arctic-like weather over snow any day. In December, their Mahler concert had to be canceled because of snow. (It is rescheduled for May 8, ’04). With the temperature near zero, on Saturday evening they performed an all-Mozart concert to a near full house at the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Perhaps Mozart has more pull than Mahler with the celestial weatherman!

For the concert, Maestro Rothstein programmed an overture, a concerto, and a symphony. The overture to the comic opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” was presented in a straightforward manner. Mozart’s clever internal banter among the instruments could have used more sparkle. Still, the overall orchestral energy was sufficient to propel a curtain to open, had there been an opera to present.

Then came a Mozart gem, the “Clarinet Concerto,” a work completed just two months before the composer's death. Stanley Drucker, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonics, was the soloist. Before the downbeat, Drucker, with arms stiffly extended, held his clarinet before him vertically. He seemed to be silently telling the audience: “Here is an instrument that is going to thrill you with its beauty.” And it did. Together, orchestra and soloist produced a memorable performance.

The outer two movements were joyful and playful. Drucker’s brisk finger work, often with quick leaps of notes from upper to lower register, always produced pleasurable tones. In the inner adagio movement, arguably one of the Austrian masters most beautiful, he exhibited superb legato playing. The orchestra complemented perfectly. After the finale, waves of lengthy applause brought Druker back for three bows.

In the second half of the program, Rothstein conducted the “Linz” Symphony (K.425), one of Mozart’s so-called Viennese symphonies, his last six. There is evidence this symphony was written in five days, including writing out all the orchestral parts!

Yet, as famed musicologist Donald Tovery avers, it ranks with the Greatest of Mozart’s works.

Indeed the Ridgefield orchestra provided an excellent case for this belief. From the opening notes, slow and majestic, the musicians quickly thrust into the movement’s intrinsic cheerfulness. Especially attractive was the second theme’s presentation, with its stately chords of brass and woodwinds following an underpinning of rapid movements in the basses and cellos. All this was performed with great skills.

In the second movements, adagio, a special aural treat was Mozart’s then new cohesive use of trumpets and drums against long spun-out themes in the strings. In the following minuet movement, the symphony accented the perkiness of Viennese dance. To this listener, these movements, though pleasant to hear, had a certain perfunctory quality in their presentation.

Not so the final movement. Here the violins enthusiastically led the charge of the musicians into a Mozartean world that spins along “like a tireless athlete.” It was a near faultless performance, with the multiple themes played briskly and accurately.

Especially memorable was the orchestra’s tossing about of that wonderful little fugato theme. Rothstein himself, in his conducting style, showed that he too had a touch of the “Bernstein” in him. Through his effective leadership, the listener came to a greater appreciation of what Mozart’s genius was all about.

In appreciation, the audience gave the orchestra and its leader one of the most extensive and warm reception of recent years.

The concert was presented by Union Savings Bank, with partial sponsorship by John and Joanne Patrick. Would that these enlightened sponsors could have been around in Mozart’s day. In that case, with such support and encouragement, he might have lived longer, completed his “Requiem” and brought us even more heavenly music.

Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra: A nearly flawless performance
By Courtenay Cauble
RIDGEFIELD PRESS, REVIEW
Jan. 15, 2004

Not even the winter’s most frigid temperature could keep away the enthusiastic capacity audience that enjoyed a nearly flawless performance last Saturday evening at the first of the two concerts in this season’s Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra chamber orchestra series at the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Maestro Sidney Rothstein’s new traditional all-Mozart series opener included the Overture to “Cosi fan tutte,” the Symphony No. 36 in C Major, and the Clarinet Concerto in A Major, with celebrated New York Philharmonic clarinetist Stanley Druker as the featured guest soloist. The Playhouse Series is presented by Union Savings Bank, and this first program of the season was sponsored in part by John and Joanne Patrick.

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With its sound nicely projected by the Playhouse’s unusually gratifying acoustics, the orchestra was at its best from beginning to end. After a measured, mock-serious introduction, the sprightly overture dashed along with sparkling fluency, nicely dovetailed woodwind passages chasing one another about musically in anticipation of the comic romp to come in an opera that delighted the Viennese audiences for it was written – except for those who were scandalized by a title and plot that suggested unequivocally the all women are fickle and unfaithful.

Maestro Rothstein’s reading of the “Linz” Symphony – one of those miraculous “special occasion” works that Mozart conceived and completed in a day or two – was equally fine, especially the lovely, pensive second movement and the joyous finale, with its introspective overtones.

Stanley Drucker’s combination of unqualified mastery of this instrument and instinctive showmanship assures his audiences of a genuine audio-visual experience as he bobs and gestures with his instrument at climactic spots in the music and from time to time, at the ends of particularly expressive passages, dramatically lifts his left hand and arm away from his clarinet while still holding onto the final note.

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Mr. Drucker’s absolute control was nowhere more evident (and impressive) than in the A Major Concerto’s expressive Adagio, where he made his instrument sing with all the flexibility and subtle variations of nuance of the best trained human voice. His approach to the faster movements was more aggressive than that of some other performers, though, often underscoring the music’s drama more strongly than its classical lyricism, sometimes to the point of forcing the temp a bit in extended running sixteenth-note passages. Maestro Rothstein was with him at every point, though, managing a seamless melding of soloist and orchestra that resulted in an overall performance strong enough to warrant a long and enthusiastic standing ovation.

The Ridgefield Symphony’s next regular subscription concert, set for Feb. 7, will feature internationally recognized 16-year-old pianist Pauline Yang as soloist for the Saint-Saen Piano Concerto No. 2 along with Rossini’s Overture to “L’italiana in Algeri” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The RSO’s second Ridgefield Playhouse concert, on March 14, will feature violinist Ayako Yoshida playing Haydn’s C Major Violin Concerto and include works by Beethoven, Rossini, and Hermann Ambrosius.

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra in The Musical Mime, A Comedy Concerto
By Carolina Fernandez, RSO Board Member
11/18/03

Michelle Dearborn, Dan Kamin and Nancy Holland

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra did it again, delighting adults and children alike with a magical performance written and directed by critically-acclaimed mime Dan Kamin. The Musical Mime began it’s musings with a fight over the baton between conductor Sidney Rothstein and Dan Kamin, dressed in his signature striped shirt and floppy black pants. What with Kamin not looking at all like a conductor, Rothstein easily won the battle and kept the baton, while an unhappy Kamin mimed to the strains of Stravinsky and Britten. Engaged in a tug-of-war over power and control, Kamin’s pantomime with an imaginary rope led all of us to use our imaginations in a real life tug-of-war. When a child from the audience was brought up to pantomime this tug-of-war with him, the crowd giggled in approval.

Familiar themes from Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” left the audience with comfort food for the soul while the battle for the baton continued. Kamin’s genius in creating a “wall” was so artfully crafted that my own son confessed he felt as if he was enclosed in a magical room. It was this hand-magic that captivated me the most. Sitting in the front row, I could literally feel the tension between “tight” and “loose” as he created hand movements along this “wall.”
Fabulous!

As the program neared its end, the battle over the baton was won—momentarily—by Kamin, dressed now in full tuxedo with tails, as he directed an agreeable orchestra to a scherzo by Beethoven. The fact that his face was overshadowed by a bright, big red clown nose made no difference. He handled the baton with flair to the laughter of the audience, all too happy to see him conquer Rothstein, if just for a moment.

The performance proved once again the importance of both music and laughter in our lives. Essential to our very survival, as are oxygen and water, I was thankful to have experienced both. That children clapped their hands, laughed out loud, squealed in delight, and were launched into a realm of inspiration heretofore unimagined, made it all worthwhile. That they moved further down the continuum of music appreciation…well, that is just one very nice benefit indeed, isn’t it?

Family Concert Preview
By Traug Keller
10/22/03

Hoping to top last year's Family Concert smash hit sellout, "'Broadway Favorites", Nancy Holland feels the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra has done it again. by securing the services of Dan Kamin, a nationally acclaimed MIME as the featured attraction of "The Musical Mime' at this year's Family Concert on November 16.

"He is a great talent and a pleasure to work with," Mrs. Holland, an orchestra board member, says. ": The show will be a mixture of the antics of a talented Mime and familiar music under Sidney Rothstein's direction."

Mr. Kamin, who created Johnny Depp's physical comedy routines for the movie "Benny and Joon" and the comedy scenes for "Chaplin" also trained Mr. Depp and Robert Downey, Jr. He was the wooden Indian who came to life in "Creepshow 2" and created Martian movements for Tim Burton's "Mars Attack."

"I was looking for something different and, as always for the family concerts, something that would be fun for the children and give them a look at classical music," Mrs. Holland says. "Sidney was familiar with Dan's work and we saw tapes of his performances. He is very entertaining."

In the "Musical Mime" Mr. Kamin plays an upstart mime who battles Conductor Rothstein for control over the orchestra, By the time it's over the audience and the musicians on stage have gotten into the act. In the process, the music is made visual and exciting, enhanced by some of Mr. Kamin's selections including familiar favorites like Peter and the Wolf and the William Tell Overture.

During the past few seasons, Mr. Kamin has performed with the Boston, Philadelphia, Singapore and Baltimore orchestras among others, directed several hit productions of classic comedies in his home town of Pittsburgh and performed solo shows throughput the U.S. and England.

"It's really an art form," Mrs. Holland says. "It will be exciting, fun and educational." She and fellow co-chairperson on the board, Michele Dearborn have been involved with eight family concerts, which have become a staple of the orchestra's offerings each year. Held on a Sunday afternoon in the Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at the high school, the family concert is in addition to the orchestra's four subscription offerings and two performances at the Ridgefield Playhouse.

This year's performance on Sunday, November 16 is sponsored in part by the Perrin Family Foundation and the Dow Chemical Company with additional support from Seth and Aline Lawrence and Webster Bank. Tickets are available at the Ridgefield Music Store, Squash's and the RSO office on Big Shop Lane, 438-3889.

October 18 Review
By John Patrick

Photo credit: © 2003 Herb Deutsch. All rights reserved.

Energetic Music to Love
The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra gave the first concert of it's 2003-2004 season. Entitled Energetic Music to Love, the opening concert started with a short, lively seductive theme from a "secret marriage" by Domenico Cimarosa. Then, Aaron Rosand, considered by many to be the supreme master of the violin, thrilled the audience with his stunning performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D. Maestro Sidney Rothstein used the power and beauty of the Brahms Symphony No. 1 to end the opening concert with high momentum toward the concerts to come.