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| [Excerpts from:]
From the Aisle Seat By Dan Wolfe
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| Last Friday evening Kate Tamarkin conducted
the first of two final concerts in her role as Artistic director and conductor
of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
It was a splendid gift the Tamarkin gave the audience: works by Vaughan Williams, Poulenc and Elgar. The VSO chorus and the orchestra sang and played at the top of their form. The concert pointed up all of the changes that have come about during the years Tamarkin has been here. She has left behind her a major gift of a stable orchestra and a fine chorus, not to mention the expansion of the performance schedule, most recently in establishing a summer concert series in manchester. The audience gave her the thanks she has earned by their calling her back to the stage at the end of the concert for innumerable bows. They also gathered in the lobby after the performance to wish her good luck in her future conducting / artistic directing. As for the music, it went well. The Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music was splendidly sung by sixteen soloists instead of the whole chorus. They did a splendid job in the ensemble parts, and made many of the lines shimmer in their solo sections. Tamarkin couldn't have chosen better than those lines from The Merchant of Venice, with their description of the music of the spheres. It is a work of brilliance, full of the motions of the water, full of the magic of moonlight. These things were all present in the performance. Poulenc's Gloria is a work which exists all by itself. It is non-liturgical because it has no other setting of prayers from the ordinary of the mass. Contrary to the program notes' assertion, it takes more than a Kyrie to constitute a liturgical service. There would need to be both a Sanctus / Benedictus and an Agnus Dei to make the work liturgically serviceable. Gale Limansky was the soprano soloist. She spun out the most delicate of pianissimi, and sang the rest of the solos with some conviction. she negotiated the melodic lines with conviction. The chorus handled its part well, and the rhythms of the piece came through clearly. It is of note that this work comes near the opera Dialogue of the Carmelites. Indeed, the solo parts - especially in the third section, Domine Deus - is very much in the vocal style of the opera. After intermission, Tamarkin led the orchestra in Elgar's Variations on an Original theme, Op. 37, "Enigma". It was a warm and luscious reading of this work, which is not played enough. It is a truly great piece of writing. The orchestra, especially the high strings, are challenged by the piece, and they met the challenges. Hearing the work performed live allows the listener more clearly to hear each variation, and to listen to the brilliant and unique orchestral sounds that Elgar wrote. The orchestra played the score with total conviction, and the remarkable orchestration sounded wonderful. Tamarkin has gifted us her in Vermont with an orchestra that has grown immensely during her tenure. She had a sound staff behind her at the VSO, but as I see it she is the one who worked the magic with the orchestra. And she did her work so positively, and with a wonderful willingness to play the bad witch in Wizard of Oz, and to travel up and down the state with the orchestra and with ensembles from the orchestra to make the orchestra truly the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Wherever she goes in future, they many not know it, but she's a winner. And we certainly may find out how deep our loss really is. |
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