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September 13, 2007
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The cure for overindulgence Indulging too much in classical music’s blockbusters is like eating Thanksgiving Dinner every day. You can only get so far before you yearn for something on a smaller scale — a plate of raw veggies, perhaps, if only for the contrast. That’s the role played lately in the local area by the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, a community group that in recent seasons has programmed relatively modest pieces, including many lesser-known works of the great composers. The pattern continues this season. Under the direction of conductor David Feltner, the group will tackle scores ranging from the local premiere of a relatively new work to Beethoven’s very first symphony, known (appropriately enough) as Symphony No. 1. Both items are on the first program, to be played on Saturday, Nov. 10, in Nashua and Sunday, Nov. 11, in Milford. The new work is “Convocation,” a piece written in 2001 by American composer Katrina Wreede. I’m not familiar with her music, but the bio on her Web site sure sounds interesting: “Katrina Wreede has been a professional symphony musician, a jazz violist, a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, a concert soloist, a belly dancer, a police fingerprinter, a non-denominational wedding officiant...” It goes on from there, but if Wreede’s music is as colorful as her background, listeners are in for a treat. Among her more recent works: “A Mini Burrito Kind of Thing” (2006), written for two clarinets, trumpet, two violins, cello and piano. Also on the program are two vocal pieces by Mozart and Schubert featuring soprano Lisa Feltner as soloist, a 10-minute-long “mini symphony” written in the 1930s by French composer Alfred Roussel and called “Sinfonietta,” and Beethoven’s first stab at symphony writing. The program gets played on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. in Nashua at Collings Auditorium, Daniel Webster College, and then repeated on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 3 p.m. in Milford Town Hall (my opinion: much better acoustics). Tickets cost $8 to $15, children under 12 free; season passes to the orchestra’s three concerts cost $36. Visit nco-music.com or call 673-4100 or 889-7415. Later concerts include a “Young Talent” program in March featuring violinists Bill Johnson and Sam Roseman playing a Vivaldi concerto, Rameu’s Dance Suite, the Simple Symphony by British composer Benjamin Britten, and Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony No. 35. The season ends in June with Feltner leading a “Looking Back” concert that includes Respighi’s ‘Ancient Airs and Dances” Suite No. 1, the seldom-heard Cello Concerto by British composer Edward Elgar with cellist Emmanuel Feldman as soloist, and Tchaikovsky’s charming ‘Mozartiana’ Suite.
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8/30/2007 Back to the basics
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