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Allegro con spirito
Orchestra combines two kinds of music in weekend concerts: Mozart wrote “Symphony No. 35” in 1782 for the induction of one Sigmund Haffner into the nobility of Austria. For this reason, the piece is often referred to as the “Haffner Symphony” and was first played in Salzburg.
Mozart dictated that the piece was to be played “allegro con spirito,” or “quickly with spirit.”
Thus, it is not difficult to see why the fire and energy of “Symphony No. 35,” even though it was written 150 years earlier, would work well when performed alongside the Cuban and Caribbean rhythms of Gershwin's “Cuban Overture,” written in 1932.
“We always want to appeal to a wide variety of musical tastes, and we thought Mozart is always very popular but is a little longhair, but Gershwin is always popular. 'Cuban Overture' has wild rhythms and jumps all over the place. It's great,” said DDE_LINKDavid Hughes DDE_LINK, a Loudoun Symphony Orchestra veteran of close to 17 years and its principal clarinetist.
Hughes, who also serves as vice president of the LSO's executive committee, knows, firsthand, that there is nothing off-the-cuff about the way the programs for each concert are developed by the LSO.
“We are planning for next year's concert right now,” Hughes said. “The music director [Mark Allen McCoy] puts together a schedule composed of pieces he thinks the orchestra can play. He also finds soloists. That's one thing about symphonies, they use a lot of outside soloists.”
The next step is the review by the artistic committee of McCoy's proposal.
“The committee is all made up of members of the orchestra,” Hughes said. “They talk and they make suggestions. Mark goes back and revamps. Once we get a theme, we are ready to go.”
The program this weekend also will include Borodin's “Polovetsian Dances,” from “Prince Igor,” written in the late 1800s. One of these dances became the melody used for “Stranger in Paradise” in the 1953 musical “Kismet” by Robert Wright and George Forrest.
These three musical factors will be accompanied by Roy Harris' “Symphony No. 3” written in 1939.
The instruments in the spotlight will definitely be from the percussion family.
“We will be using at least 80 percussion instruments for this concert ... and maybe more if they find someone to play the maracas,” Hughes said.
The goal, Hughes said, is to broaden the audience base with each performance.
“We know that, based on what we've seen, that when people come to hear the orchestra, they're going to like what they see and come back,” Hughes said.
What the LSO has seen includes a musical panorama that began in November 1990 when, the LSO Web site explains, a group got together and created what was called the Loudoun Community Orchestra. The group was composed of music teachers looking for students; parents of students who had come from school districts with string programs; musicians tired of driving to Washington, D.C., for classic music; former musicians wanting to return to the world of symphony; and a few individuals who just wanted to see Loudoun have its own symphony orchestra.
The first rehearsals were in December of 1990 and January of 1991. The first performance was March 16, 1991, at Loudoun County High School. The first full season was 1991-1992, and the orchestra's board of directors hired Maestro Jed Gaylin as the first permanent conductor in 1992.
The name was changed to the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra in 1994, and McCoy came to the podium in 1997.
Hughes indicated that with each step ?small or giant -- the LSO has gotten better.
“The fact is that the orchestra is getting better and better and better,” Hughes said, “and this year it has stepped over into the professional caliber.”
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timepapers.com
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