© Oak Ridger/Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge, Tenn./TNS Becky Ball Oak Ridge Civic Music Association's Music Director-Conductor Dan Allcott knows a thing or two about programing. He gets his audiences hooked on diversity and then baits us with enticing new works (brand new or new to Oak Ridge) The program performed by The Oak Ridge Symphony Sunday afternoon, Feb. 8, at the Historic Grove Theater was a shining example. Think of it as a scrumptious buffet of small plates, which does indeed offer us more flavor than a main dish and a couple of sides.
First up on the Musical Firsts menu was Jessie Montgomery's Records from a Vanishing City, a sprawling tone poem that opened the throttle and went headlong into a score that put our string section in the best of light. It is based on the memories of the songs and sounds the composer heard while growing up in Manhattan's Lower East Side, which included many different cultures. The piece cleverly adopts and expands on various styles. Though generous with dissonances, the instrumentation is very interesting.
Let's put Derek Reeves' name on ORCMA's VIP honor role. He, the guest soloist, made the virtuoso passages of Telemann's Viola Concerto look like a piece of cake. Always the artist, he also sustained his beautiful cashmere tone throughout William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Orchestra, another fine keeper. All involved here made gorgeous music and the camaraderie between Allcott and Reeves did not go unnoticed. All involved here made us proud.
What was not to like about the "Four Novelettes" by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor? It was a good number to close your eyes and just let the movements wash over you (after reading Mike Cates' program notes, of course).
We've been told that expecting the unexpected is actually fun, so let's expect to hear about Alabama and George Wallace. That's right, we heard it ourselves from the maestro. He read from the stage bits about the era as an introduction to Daniel Bernard Roumain's "Tuscaloosa Meditations." Roumain is well known as a collaborative 21st century acclaimed violinist and activist whose "Meditations" is a depiction of the famous scene where Wallace blocked the first Black students from entering the University of Alabama.
© Special to The Oak Ridger/Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge, Tenn./TNS Dan Alcott Oh, how great it would have been to visualize the thoughts in everybody's heads. What was so captivating about all of it was the hypnotic effect the brilliantly sustained high notes had on us. The volume control was awesome, and the expected sadness was not too heavy, but the trumpet solo at the end depicting Wallace's forlorn cry of defeat had a powerful impact. Black History Month was honored.
Becky Ball is a reviewer for The Oak Ridger.
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