Concert Report #1 - Alumni Recital

Last night (Thursday, September 20th) I attended an Alumni Recital at the Hockett Family Recital Hall in Ithaca College. It was conducted by Jonathan Musgrave. The recital consisted of two pieces - Richard Strauss' Serenade in E-flat, and Motzart's Serenade in C minor. The ensemble was rather small, and consisted of only woodwinds and a few horns (however there was a contrabass on the Strauss performance. 

The first piece, Serenade in E-flat, was a classical piece composed by Richard Strauss in 1881. At first, I wasn't really sure how it would sound, seeing as the ensemble was so small, and the range of instruments was not great. Once they began playing, however, I was amazed at the completeness of the sound, and the diverse range of textures that I was hearing. The simple addition of the contrabass made a huge impact on the first piece in my opinion, as it properly accentuated the emotions of the music. In addition to the bass, the horns definitely added another important element. Although they have a completely different sound than the other woodwinds, I found that they were played with such grace that they did not overpower the music. Their solo in the beginning of the piece was simply astounding. The last instrument that really stuck out to me was the oboe. Near the end of the piece, there was an oboe solo played which to me introduced a completely new emotion/feel to the music. For some reason to me, it sounded somewhat jazzy (to a very slight extent). This solo was probably my favorite section of the piece, and it really captured my attention.

The second piece, Serenade in C minor (Motzart) was broken in to four sections:

I. Allegro

II. Andante

III. Menuetto in Canone

IV. Allegro

For this piece, the ensemble was decreased in size, as the contrabass left with a few other instruments (I can't recall exactly what left). As the program said, the piece sure enough started out in a rather up-tempo pace (allegro). The section ended, and the ensemble moved on to the Andante section, a much slower pace. To be honest, the first two sections of the piece were not so memorable to me, as everything kind of seemed to blend together. Section III, however, grabbed my attention a bit more. Now, I have absolutely no clue what "Menuetto in Canone" means, so I had no clue what was coming when section III began. The main part that stuck out to me was the 3/4 timing. It definitely had a more energized feel than the last two sections. While the solos and differing textures did not impress me as much as the firs piece, the tempo and overall sound of this section was a lot different than anything else in the program. Lastly, the piece ended in Allegro once again. This reminded me about the "coming home" concept we were talking about in class, as the piece began in Allegro, went through a couple very different sounding sections,  yet ended in Allegro, the same way it began.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at this recital. The way we've been taught to 'critically listen' to music in class over the past few weeks increased my appreciation and enjoyment of the music greatly. I found myself separating the different textures and zoning in on them individually. While I did attempt to listen for phrasing and cadences, it was extremely difficult. The style of music they played was very different than anything we've analyzed in class, as folk music is much more repetitive, making it easier to listen for cadences, etc.