By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — The Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra’s (TICO’s) June 7 concert featured the music of Leonard Bernstein, the 20th century’s most outstanding American musician. He was not only a great composer, equally versatile writing classical music and Broadway musicals, but he was one of the world’s foremost conductors, a brilliant pianist and a remarkable educator, as his televised Young People’s Concerts confirmed.
With infusion of cross-rhythms, jazz, and influences of Stravinsky, Copland, and others, his scores are challenging, even for professional orchestras.
Although the TICO forces had some struggling moments, they generally acquitted themselves well during the evening’s offerings.
The concert got off to a light-hearted start with the fast-paced Overture to Candide, which has become a familiar standard for symphony orchestras. The harp flourishes added just the right touch to the work.
This was followed with Bernstein’s less familiar Serenade After Plato’s “Symposium.” The soloist for this cerebral work for Violin and String Orchestra was Ondrej Lewit, a native of Prague, who currently teaches and performs in San Diego. By the third movement of this five movement work, Lewit hit his stride and his technical ability and beautiful sound became evident. There were some admirable solo passages by the principal cello and the principal viola, and the work ended with a jazzy perpetual motion.
After intermission, a second soloist performed, flutist Jonathan Sussman. This gifted young man, who just finished his Freshman year at the University of California, majoring in both Flute and Biomedical Engineering, was heard earlier in the TICO season as the violist in a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola. In the All-Bernstein concert, he performed Halil, a work dedicated to the memory of Yadin Tanenbaum, a talented Israeli flutist who was killed serving in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
There were interesting interchanges between the soloist and the alto flute as well as the piccolo. The middle section had the percussion accompanying the flute. This unusual work, like the Serenade, was challenging to absorb, filled with dissonance and unusual effects.
Sussman performed with outstanding dynamic contrasts and great breath control. At the final fermata note, he seemed able to sustain it for an eternity.
The concluding work on TICO’s program was the most familiar, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. The second movement, Somewhere, had passages for the principal string players, which they performed nicely. The drums shone in the Mambo, the muted trumpet was compelling in the Cool Fugue and the Rumble proved exciting. The subdued Finale brought the concert to a close. The orchestra, under their founder and director, David Amos, obviously worked hard to achieve the high level of performance for this lengthy and challenging evening.
TICO’s closing concert of the season will be its Pops program on Sunday, July 17 at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. 16-year-old violinist, Ilana Hirschfeld. will be one of the soloists in Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
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Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)