I was thrilled to attend the Mission Chamber Orchestra of San Jose's performance last night, directed by Emily Ray. Experiencing live music with a live audience was refreshing and rejuvenating -- feeling the powerful harmonies and dynamics surrounding you, and the vibrations of the double bass, cellos, and timpani emanating through my chair and the floor. My feet tapped to the rhythms, and my mind stretched to the complexity of the compositions. And I was inspired talking to some of the musicians about their joy of performing, their musical backgrounds, and back stories of the rehearsing leading up to performance. I also appreciate the pandemic practice of live streaming, because now I can go back and relive the performance on YouTube (see below).
The evening warmed up with Leslie La Barre's, Wildfires, a world premiere attended by Leslie's parents (Leslie is in Florida). The piece really captured the unpredictability and devastation of the fires.
Next up was Adrienne Albert's, In Tuo Lumine Lumen, also a world premiere, featuring violist Yvonne Smith from Houston. Reflecting on the inspiration for the composition, I kept thinking that it must be really cool for a musician to have a piece written for you to perform.
The third piece, leading up to intermission, was Henry Mollicone's, Horn Concerto, also a world premiere, that horn soloist Brian Holmes dedicated to his late mentor. I was impressed by the variety of sounds that Holmes was able to achieve by placing his left hand in the bell of the horn -- surprisingly creating almost trumpet-like sounds in some situations.
As someone that enjoys indie music and new bands, the program felt a little bit like having lesser known acts opening up for a headliner at a rock concert. In this case, the headliner was Felix Mendelssohn and his Symphony no. 4, “Italian," and the Mission Chamber Orchestra's performance did not disappoint. Bravissimo!
The performance was streamed live and the recording is now on YouTube here:
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