By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — To celebrate The Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra’s (TICO’S) 50th season, the orchestra played a fifth symphony by a famous composer for each of its four classical concerts. The orchestra featured Beethoven’s Fifth for its season opener, followed by Tchaikowsky’s Fifth, Shostokovitch’s Fifth, and for the June 16 and 18 concerts, Schubert’s Fifth.
TICO, under the baton of David Amos, reflected the buoyant lightness of Franz Schubert’s Fifth Symphony through well-defined dynamic contrasts. Schubert wrote this work when he was 19 years old, in homage to Mozart and Haydn. The winds shone and the strings were particularly lovely in the second movement Andante, in G minor.
Before intermission, we heard Silence, a world premiere by John Michael Luther, based on a poem written by Conductor Amos’ granddaughter, Piper Gillett, when she was 13 years old. The work made a profound impression, especially remarkable that the words were written by one so young, and inspired such an interesting setting by composer Luther.
Michelle Law, an accomplished recitalist and opera singer, sang and spoke the vocal line. There was also a section where she sang wordless vocalizations. The lyrics were printed in the program, beginning with, “The silence was overwhelming.” The concluding lines were:
“Since the beginning of time we have had the blessing of noise. Noise brings life.So, when it’s all over and no life is left, silence will prevail. Enjoy the gift of sound now. Use it for the good that fills people’s hearts, not the kind that breaks them. Sound is a powerful thing. The very thing that proves existence. The silence will once again by overwhelming.”
After intermission, TICO’s assistant conductor, Robert Zelickman, mounted the podium to conduct Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes. This work came about because when Prokofiev was in New York, after finishing writing his opera, Love of Three Oranges, to be premiered by the Chicago Lyric Theater, he was visited by a group of his former Jewish students from Russia. They were now living in Israel and the group, a string quartet, a clarinet and a piano, were on a fund-raising concert tour. Although they played in various configurations, they did not have a work to include all of them. They gave Prokofiev several Jewish melodies and commissioned him to write a piece for them, based on those themes. He quickly composed the Overture on Hebrew Themes. Fifteen years later, he arranged it for orchestra, the version performed by TICO. The principal clarinet was particularly fine in his many solos in the piece.
The concluding work of the afternoon was Stravinsky’s challenging Firebird Suite, consisting of excerpts from the first of several ballets Stravinsky composed for the Ballet Russe in Paris, under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev.
TICO gave the work an exciting reading, given the difficult score. The Infernal Dance was wild sounding, opening with the startling loud drum beat.The bassoon solo in the Lullaby was beautifully rendered and the French horn opening of the Finale launched the music which rose to climactic grandeur, culminating this masterpiece of the 20th century.
TICO s last concert of the season will be its August Pops Concert, at 3 p.m., Sunday, August 4, in the Cohen Social Hall of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.
The loyal volunteer musicians of TICO continue to present programs which satisfy the performers and bring beauty to the listeners. The orchestra continues to grow in musicality under the devoted leadership of David Amos, and now, the added support of assistant conductor, Robert Zelickman.
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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.