Wednesday November 17, 2004
Reno Philharmonic One of the downsides to living in Lake Tahoe is that some of the finer aspects of culture are hard to access in person. Sure, its only 4 hours to the Bay Area or an hour to get to Reno and another hour or so to much of the western US, but that takes planning. Recently I've been looking to the Reno Philharmonic, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, and other events at the Pioneer Center to fill my needs. The Reno Philharmonic concert last sunday was made up of 3 pieces: a work by a young american composer whose work I didn't know, a cello concerto by Elgar which I was faintly aware of, and Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" which its hard not to be very aware of. I wasn't sure what to expect from the Reno Philharmonic but I was very happy with the results. The music director gave a talk beforehand about the program. His enthusiasm for the music and especially for the first work made it easier for me to approach a work I hadn't heard before. He furthered that during the concert by pulling the work apart and having parts of the orchestra play important pieces before they performed all of it. This made detail that might be missed especially on a first hearing easier to appreciate. The Elgar concerto was very enjoyable and the Ravel made a prefect last piece as it was very familiar and is easy to listen to.
( Nov 17 2004, 01:03:03 PM PST )
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