Concert Report
Rob Wettle
Enjoyment of Music
November 17, 2011
The Northwest Symphony orchestra
Fall Concert November 13, 2012
Concert Report I attended the fall concert for the Northwest’s Symphony Orchestra on the night of November 13, 2012 at HMLA. They played a number of pieces including a piece with a soloist from a tremendous flute player. Personally, sitting through this concert though was torture from a musical standpoint. Their first piece started right away not together in the brass section and didn’t improve through the night. Once the strings section came in, very soon they weren’t together either along with their bowing being off as well. This could easily be put on the fact that there was hardly any eye contact with the conductor from the players. The dynamics were inexistent in the pieces; I heard a difference in the volume of their playing once or twice in all their pieces. Even the tone quality wasn’t all that impressive as frequently the violins would squeak or the brass wavering in their notes. They really didn’t have much coming from them all night. Coming from a high school Orchestra, I felt the skill level not only didn’t improve, but actually lowered. One of the pieces they played, we played my freshman year in high school and they still struggled with that piece. Now to look at the few positive aspects of the night, like I said earlier the flute player was quite extraordinary and did a good job of masking the orchestra and taking the focus off them. The biggest thing that saved them I thought was their final piece they came together and a strong start and a strong finale is always huge. It was clear that they had put a lot of more work on that piece as they were more together and it made the sound much louder as well as their tone quality to improve. After seeing this concert, it is clear that the orchestra here isn’t that big and more string players would help but also to spend more time practicing than only one night a week for a couple
Enjoyment of Music
November 17, 2011
The Northwest Symphony orchestra
Fall Concert November 13, 2012
Concert Report I attended the fall concert for the Northwest’s Symphony Orchestra on the night of November 13, 2012 at HMLA. They played a number of pieces including a piece with a soloist from a tremendous flute player. Personally, sitting through this concert though was torture from a musical standpoint. Their first piece started right away not together in the brass section and didn’t improve through the night. Once the strings section came in, very soon they weren’t together either along with their bowing being off as well. This could easily be put on the fact that there was hardly any eye contact with the conductor from the players. The dynamics were inexistent in the pieces; I heard a difference in the volume of their playing once or twice in all their pieces. Even the tone quality wasn’t all that impressive as frequently the violins would squeak or the brass wavering in their notes. They really didn’t have much coming from them all night. Coming from a high school Orchestra, I felt the skill level not only didn’t improve, but actually lowered. One of the pieces they played, we played my freshman year in high school and they still struggled with that piece. Now to look at the few positive aspects of the night, like I said earlier the flute player was quite extraordinary and did a good job of masking the orchestra and taking the focus off them. The biggest thing that saved them I thought was their final piece they came together and a strong start and a strong finale is always huge. It was clear that they had put a lot of more work on that piece as they were more together and it made the sound much louder as well as their tone quality to improve. After seeing this concert, it is clear that the orchestra here isn’t that big and more string players would help but also to spend more time practicing than only one night a week for a couple