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| FORTH WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA |
On a cold, wet Sunday afternoon, the Travelling Toe and friends attended the matinee performance of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra was led by guest conductor, Eugene Tzigane, making his first appearance with the orchestra but hopefully not his last. He was thoroughly entertaining conducting the orchestra, very intent on the music played and engaging with musicians and audience members as well.
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| Eugene Tzigane |
The program opened up with the orchestra performing Maurice Ravel's "Le tombeau de Couperin". This piece of music lasting but 16 minutes, packs a lot of emotion into this small time fame. Impressionism had taken the art world by storm and Ravel used his music to reflect these changes. According to the program notes, the word tombeau was used in the 17th century to describe a musical piece dedicated to honor the memory of friends lost. For this piece of music, Ravel dedicated it to six friends who were killed during WWI.
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| Maurice Ravel |
After that selection, the guest violin soloist, Stefan Jackiw, played Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Violin Concerto in D Major". Mr. Korngold began composing music at a young age in Austria and soon achieved fame. Then in 1934, Max Reinhardt persuaded Korngold to come to Hollywood and write musical scores for the movies. H achieved great success again with scores that were part of several very popular movies - one in particular, was "The Adventures of Robin Hood", starring Errol Flynn. During this time frame he began working on the violin concerto, finishing it in 1937 with final revisions in 1945. The great Jascha Heifetz premiered the work on February 15, 1947. While listening to this piece, one can pick out short themes Korngold used in his movie scores. It was an exciting piece of music to hear.
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| Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
Mr. Jackiw played the piece with high energy and deep emotion. During the third movement, he was playing so intensely, The Travelling Toe was worried that his violin might catch fire. Once again the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has struck gold booking this young emerging star who gave the audience an outstanding performance.
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| Stefan Jackiw |
After intermission, the orchestra played Anton Dvorak's "Symphony No. 7 in D Minor. It was a wonderful piece and the orchestra did a brilliant job in all 3 movements of the piece.
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| Anton Dvorak |
This was an excellent concert by the musicians, the guest conductor and guest violin artist. Both Mr. Tzigane and Mr. Jackiw should be engaged as quickly as possible for return performances.
Disclaimer: The Travelling Toe is not a professional musical critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.
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