The third 2011 River Concert of the season gathered a huge crowd, filling the lawn at St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a sea of people on the evening of Friday, July 1st . Before beginning the concert with the Chesapeake Orchestra playing the “Star Spangled Banner”, music director Jeffrey Silberschlag warned the crowd to ”get under their chairs for the flyover” after the anthem. No one ducked, but they did give a hearty cheer! “Danger Zone” from “Top Gun” immediately followed, sung by a passionate performer playing electric guitar. The flyover in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation included two Navy jets whose pilots, and some Navy brass, were introduced later in the concert.
Next on the musical program was “Holiday Overture” by Elliot Carter, written in the modern mode during World War II. The music was a little jumbled with a varied style and not particularly melodic. There were jerky sounding strings, bells, sticks and an abrupt ending.
The audience was amused by “A Grand, Grand Overture Op. 57 composed by Malcolm Arnold, a satire of a serious overture. The work was announced by Maestro Silberschlag as “going where no orchestra would ever dare go.” The Overture featured hedge trimmer played by Sam Goddard, two vacuum cleaners amusingly presented by St. Mary’s College President Joseph Urgo and Ginny Stein, muskets shot by costumed interpreters from Historic St. Mary’s City (as can only be portrayed in St. Mary’s County) and a leaf blower performed by Jim Bershon. Some of the “instruments” were actually substitutions for the original use of a floor polisher and real guns. To our amusement, the vacuum cleaners had a lovely sword fight, attempted to dust a nearby photographer’s camera and Joseph Urgo quietly vacuumed his yellow tie.
Jeffrey Silberschlag joked that the excerpts from the “Air Power Suite” by Norman Dello Joio were “one hour long. We’ll do it twice.” The work had lots of soaring melodies, a lot of repeated notes in the string section, full sized chimes and some lovely flutes. I was disappointed that the Chesapeake Orchestra didn’t play “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” a favorite song listed in the program.
After intermission, and the familiar “Liberty Bell March” by J. P. Sousa, Sterling Lambert, a professor of Musicology at the College read “Thomas Jefferson: In His Own Words” in his dramatic British tenor voice accompanied by the full orchestra. The music was a backdrop for the words which included everything from the “Bill of Rights”, to love, and the number of free and captive slaves Jefferson kept. The work ended with Jefferson’s words, “I Shall not die without the hope that life and liberty are on steady advance.”
The concert concluded with some rousing Sousa music including the “King Cotton March” and “Stars and Stripes Forever” (accompanied by many amateur singers in the audience), Morton Gould’s “American Salute” (based on “When Johnny comes Marching Home Again”) and of course P.I. Tchaikovsky’s ”1812 Overture” accompanied by fireworks over the St. Mary’s River. The many boats with their small lights bobbing in the waters of the river were a delightful sight to behold after the concert.
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