CSO Concert Review (2/22): Elgar, Britten, Saint-Saens

I went last evening, amidst the ice and snow, to hear the Columbus Symphony play the concert aforementioned on this blog.

The Elgar was played well. The rolling melodies were well placed and well played. At times, the transitions seemed a bit confused, but the structure of the piece overall was well executed.

The Britten Serenade was quite fine. The horn player, Gene Standley, played well. The opening of the piece is considered some of the most difficult written for natural horn (a horn consisting of pure tubing...no valves and notes are "approximated" by the movement of the right hand inside the bell of the horn). The high passages in movements two and three were spectacular. The entrance came out of nowhere in the highest extremes of the horn's register. The singer seemed to struggle a bit with pronunciation and diction. Dynamics could have been exaggerated by the singer a bit more as well.

The Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ' was a great, thunderous conclusion to the concert. The organ playing was good and the conductor seemed to be most familiar and comfortable with this piece. I appreciated his strict enforcement of the soft dynamics during all of the pieces, but especially on the Saint-Saens.

Overall, the concert was spectacular and well-received by the audience! Bravo to our fine musicians of the CSO! For more about the CSO, see the blog Proud Supporters of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.