1) Van Cliburn Victory!\
Th The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is arranged specifically for the design of the beautiful architecture of The Eastman Theater for perfect acoustic quality. The Van Cliburn Victory performance featured featured piano soloist Haochen Zhang. At 19, he is the youngest winner of the Van Ciburn Award.
2) The show began with Shafer Mahoney’s Sparkle with a similar composition to Ravel’s Bolero. Each of these pieces started with a single, simple melody then continued to build upon it until it was a faster, more powerful orchestral piece. The backbone melody could still be heard throughout the song. Both of the songs had a happy and playful feel, major in key. Sparkle reminds me of the excitement and pace of New York City. Some may associate a big city with danger or stress, but I feel excited and liberated being there. This song represents my emotion for New York. Only in New York is heavy traffic and blaring taxi horns considered an enduring characteristic. The hustle and bustle is what people love about it. The brass section created the most dramatic and climactic portion of the music. According to the program, it was the most “majestic” part of the performance.
I was most impressed by the speed of Haochen Zhangs hands! He made playing this difficult song appear effortless. I enjoyed how he seemed to play the piano with his entire body. I was amazed how he didn’t have to read any music- he played entirely from memory. This song begins with a feeling of romance followed by a melancholy tone, and then it suddenly becomes very playful. This is a metaphor for the changing of the seasons. You can sense moments of the song that are “rainy” and “sunny.” It captures the popular French song, “It faut s'amuser et rire” (We must enjoy ourselves and laugh) by returning to a major key after minor ones. Bouncing back from darkness to light is a theme throughout the piece.
Prokifiev's Symphony No 5 in B flat Major Op reflected the composer’s experience of a new life without war. He considers this work as “glorifying the human spirit.” Themes of resilience and strength are felt throughout the music- a direct result of a surviving war and treachery, and appreciation for life afterwards. Classical music dates back to a time before television and radio and other readily available forms of entertainment. Audiences used to turn to orchestral music as entertainment and this symphony provides the hope and encouragement war-survivors would have wanted.
Interesting. I discovered PUSH about 9 years ago when I wrote a grant for the elementary school I was working at. Darren and his crew were ust starting out and they were awesome with my kids teaching physics through physical movement. I hired PUSH for several years to have a residency at my school. They worked with grade levels creating awesome authentic performances based on literature, science as well as original writing.
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