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September 27, 2007
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The curtain goes up It’s not every day that a new orchestra plays its first concert. But one of those days will be Sunday, Sept. 30, when the Palace Festival Orchestra gives its inaugural performance at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The program, dubbed “Beethoven’s Best,” is a good exploration of the composer’s range, which extends way beyond the familiar Fifth Symphony. Sunday’s program includes the youthful and classically lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 2,” and also the powerfully dramatic “Eroica” Symphony No. 3, written at a turning point in the composer’s life, when he first confronted his growing deafness. The Eroica, with its funeral march and triumphant ending, was originally intended as a tribute to Napoleon — at least until the leader proclaimed himself emperor and began invading the rest of Europe, including Beethoven’s beloved Vienna. The original score still bears a hole where Beethoven scratched out the leader’s name. On the podium on Manchester: longtime local conductor Robert C. Babb. And in the days leading up to the concert, he’s bristling with excitement over the chance to lead the new Palace Theatre-backed venture. “There’s something about being there at the beginning, when something brand new is starting,” Babb said. “Peter Ramsey and the Palace Theatre board are committed to making this happen. They’re committed to making this successful.” But Peter Ramsey, the theater’s executive director, admits making it successful will take more than one season. The plan is to get the orchestra up and running this year, build a reputation for making good music, and then get creative and broaden the outreach in subsequent seasons. If it all works, the group will help fill the gap left by the demise of the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra earlier this year. In keeping with a local focus, soloist in the Beethoven concerto is Manchester-based pianist George Lopez, who has worked with Babb before at Babb’s other local orchestra, the Concord-based Granite State Symphony Orchestra. Plans for later this season include a New Year’s Eve concert, a “Celebrating Spring” classical performance in April, and a pops concert in June. Meanwhile, the “things to do” list includes the name. For now, the group will be called the “Palace Festival Orchestra.” But with a vision that extends beyond the theater itself, Ramsey and Babb hope audiences will help come up with a more general moniker for coming seasons. Ramsey said he’s been encouraged by the response so far. At recent Palace fundraising event, when he mentioned the theater’s plans to create and sustain a symphony orchestra, a round of spontaneous applause broke out. “That was unbelievable,” Ramsey recalled. “So it shows to me there’s a real base of support for this kind of an orchestra, for Manchester and for the region. That’s why we’re ready to make it happen.” And they’ll make it happen this weekend, with the orchestra’s first concert scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 30, at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $25 to $40; children $25, and discount subscription packages available. Call the Palace box office at 668-5588 or visit palacetheatre.org. The Palace Theatre is at 80 Hanover St., Manchester. • Guest conductor: Down in the Gate City, the Nashua Symphony opened its season-long search for a new music director on Saturday, Sept. 22, with guest conductor Jonathan Schiffman leading the group in works by de Falla, Ravel, and Beethoven. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was the big item, and Schiffman drove the musicians through the score at a brisk pace. Hard to say what he’d be able to do with the group over the long term, but the performance held together well enough. Balance was the big problem; the last movement was marred by trumpets playing rhythmic licks that overpowered the rest of the ensemble, which robbed the work of some of its effectiveness. But for a new conductor and a few rehearsals, it was still a fine performance. Best of show, however, was Ravel’s Piano Concerto, with Judith Gordon as soloist. Gordon took a very feline approach to this beguiling work, bringing it to life with grace and style, and not trying to turn it into Rachmaninoff. Schiffman, who spends a lot of time in France, sounded very much at home in this music. If he gets the job, it would be interesting to hear what he could do with other French music such as the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique or 20th-century stuff by Milhaud or Poulenc.
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9/13/2007 The cure for overindulgence
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