Aaron Gibbs
Rober
Intro to Music Literature 010
11/17/2013
Concert Report
On Tuesday, November 5th of this year, I attended a concert presented by our University Orchestra and the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ music department at Schaeffer Auditorium. The concert started at approximately 7:30 pm, and lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Coming from a musical background (I attended both a music major middle school and high school), I expected an amazing concert to be put on. I had once before seen the solo pianist, Sandra Rivers, perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra, so I knew that the portion of the audience that had never before heard her talents, were in for a treat. I was also intrigued to see director Timothy Schwarz in action, and how he controlled the orchestra. I was also excited to hear the orchestra play the pieces they had on their program. These selections were Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, Carmen Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet, and finally Bacchanale by Camille Saint-Saëns.
The first piece, Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven was by far the longest piece of the evening. This piece showed off just how brilliant Sandra Rivers is as a pianist, as it seemed as she played her solos for minutes upon minutes on end with no effort. With that being said, due to its length, this was my least favorite selection of the night. Throughout the piece, it seemed as though there was a call and response between the piano solo and the rest of the orchestra, along with many heavy crescendos and the sharp decrescendos. I also realized that within the piano solo, there were many tremolos at the highest notes of each measure of the first section. This section also began in a major key. The second section (Largo) was also major, but much different as it provided a much slower pace and a bit more of the orchestra. Overall though, this section of the piece was still dominated by the piano. The third section (Rondo: Allegro)...