Thawing Out at the Bijou

Just in time to welcome the (hopefully less snowy!) month of March, it's Copland's Appalachian Spring with the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Go! Contemporary Dance Works at the Bijou. We sorely missed performing with them at the Very Young People's Concerts which were canceled last week, but here comes another chance today at 2:30.

I have to eat my words here. Driving home from a Dvorak Bass Quintet rehearsal on Wednesday night, with snow and cars swirling around me, it became clear that the next morning's show was most certainly not going to go on. I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE SOUTH!! Sorry, just venting. I hope everyone got the word about the cancellation, and furthermore, I hope everyone got to make a snow angel! The snow was the show that day.

For the Copland, we will be performing the 13-player version of the Suite, which debuted in 1972. The 1944 original, complete ballet was scored for 13, but the Suite version that everyone knows was only ever scored for a full (or at least chamber) orchestra until '72. It's been interesting to see how the music gets redistributed through the orchestra, for instance, the piano gets a shot at the wicked fast violin and viola scales at the end. They tell me the dancers are wonderful; the costumes alone are breathtaking. What little choreography I can see (when I'm not too concerned with what's on the music stand) is gorgeous.

The first half of the concert will be composed by Grieg, Honegger (pronounced “Own-a-gare”), and Webern (pronounced “VAY-burn”). The Grieg will be an old string orchestra favorite, the Holberg Suite. An early Webern work is also for strings alone, Langsamer Satz. It reminds me of Mahler; I can't think of which symphony, but there is definitely very similar thematic and harmonic allusion. The Principal woodwind Quintet will join the strings for Honneger's work, Pastorale d'été. A mood piece, it's kind of a musical version of Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte.

Rain is in the forecast and it's probably not a good day for a sortie to “Le Cove de Cade” or other such outdoor destinations, so why not come hear- and see- spring unfold before your very ears and eyes?