Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony
October 3, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls
Wharton – Fanfares for Open Spaces [1994]
Elgar – Cello Concerto with Zuill Bailey
Prokofiev – Symphony no. 5
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‘Virtuosic talent’ comes through in WCFSO performance
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
October 12, 2009
The year’s first subscription concert of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra took place last weekend in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Music Director Jason Weinberger conducted the fine program featuring guest artist Zuill Bailey, cellist. lt was an especially rich bill of three numbers, and although all three were gratifying the most memorable was clearly an impassioned performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in e.
This concerto has been called ‘a bittersweet beauty!’ A rather flip description, but it is indeed very dark – a lament, apparently, for the terrible loss of so many lives during the First World War. In spite of the musical darkness, there are elements of serenity, even lyric beauty - especially in the Adagio movement. Still, the mood overall is somber; a far cry from Elgar’s best known work, the upbeat Pomp and Circumstance. The piece requires virtuosic talent of the highest order - and Bailey has it, not only the requisite technical skill, but sensitive artistry, as well. His rich, warm tones, his vibrato, rapid-fire fingering and passionate intensity, were all very much in evidence.
These qualities, plus his dramatic stage presence, won the respect and affection of the audience. They gave him a long, tumultuous ovation. The outcry was so insistent that Bailey returned to the stage for a lovely encore, the ever-popular Meditation fram Massenet’s opera Thaïs. The Meditation is just that – quiet, thoughtful and introspective – and throughout it the hall went utterly silent. The WCFSO has now given two of the greatest cello concertos [by Elgar and Dvořák] in performance by two of the greatest cello players, Zuill Bailey and Yo-Yo Ma.
The other big work, Symphony no. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev, took up the entire second half of the program. Its massive score defies easy description or analysis. lt is distinctly modern, vividly shaped and colorful and, on this occasion, impeccably played by the orchestra and superbly directed by Maestro Weinberger. The evening opened with a brief piece composed by native Iowan Philip Wharton, Fanfares for Open Spaces. It was an arresting introduction to an unforgettable concert.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.
