Fifth River Concert, Rainfree on Friday July 15th at 7 pm

After last week’s rained out concert, Maestro Jeffrey Silberschlag first mentioned that there was a 0 % chance of rain for this concert. He continued, "We went to Spain for a soloist who would be Spanish enough and passionate enough" to play the 2 Spanish works included in the program. The theme was European Vacation, and combined Spain and the Alps.  The Chesapeake Orchestra featured pianist Antonio Soria, a professor from the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castellón in Spain.


The first musical work, "Night in Madrid" by Mikhail Glinka was a beautiful piece with lots of soaring strings and arpeggios on piano.

It was followed by “Manuel DeFalla's "In the Garden of Spain".  Jeffrey informed us that we would hear the matador and the bull. The 3 movement piece was softer at the beginning with a 2 note ending. The second movement was dance-like with a repeated theme with theme variations and was much faster. There was even a scary section with lots of tension in the strings.

Antonio Soria was obviously much enthralled. Even when he was not playing, he was moving his whole body along with the music. His playing was of course brilliant.

After the brief intermission, the Chesapeake Orchestra continued with "An Alpine Symphony" by Richard Strauss. Maestro Jeffrey Silberschlag described the composition as a kind of trek through the Alps "like a travel writer” or a "Superman 3 soundtrack flyover the Alps". The piece included a wind machine and drum rolled thunder to describe night and a storm in Alps. The beginning was very dark and the whole piece had many moods. I heard ominous horns, flute raindrops along with long notes from the strings, and stormy timpani. The 22 sections of musical storytelling ranged from sunrise to fog to dangerous moments near the summit to blooming meadows. It was an altogether fascinating piece of music.

Plans for the River Concert on Friday July 22 at 730pm include local violinist José Cueto, “Amichai Songs” by David Froom, chair of the Colleges music department and works by Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Mahler.