Orchestras ready for ‘first big bang of the year’

Orchestras ready for ‘first big bang of the year’

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff

Rice University’s
Shepherd School of Music has arguably the finest music school
chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra in America. Houston
music lovers can soon judge for themselves when the two
groups kick off their 2000-2001 seasons.

The Shepherd
School Chamber Orchestra will open the season Sunday, Oct.
1, with works by Mendelssohn, Copland and Mozart. The Shepherd
School Symphony Orchestra opens its season Friday, Oct.
6, and Saturday, Oct. 7, with works by Dvorak, Ravel and
Bartok.

All concerts
begin at 8 p.m. in Stude Concert Hall.

The Shepherd
School Chamber Orchestra concert will celebrate the 100th
anniversary of Aaron Copland’s birth with a performance
of the composer’s “Clarinet Concerto,” featuring
a clarinet solo by Michael Webster, associate professor
of clarinet and ensembles. The Chamber Orchestra also will
perform Mozart’s “Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major,
K. 543.” Shepherd School conductor Larry Rachleff describes
the Mozart work as one of the great classical symphonies.
Also included in the program will be Mendelssohn’s
“Fingal’s Cave,” conducted by Shepherd School
student Marlon Chen.

Rachleff calls
the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra concert “the
first big bang of the year” and an ambitious first
outing. Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra,”
Rachleff notes, is a “highly inspired work written
in a short amount of time by a dying man who, through the
act of writing, gained a new lease on life and lived a few
more years.

“Bartok
treats the orchestra members as if they are many soloists,”
Rachleff says. “It’s a showpiece for the orchestra.” Rachleff conducted the virtuosic Bartok piece 10 years ago
for his inaugural Shepherd School concert, which also was
the inaugural for Stude Hall.

Ravel’s
“Concerto for the Left Hand” will feature a piano
solo by Brian Connelly, artist teacher of piano. Ravel wrote
the piece for the famous pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who
lost his right arm during World War I.

Rachleff honed
his conducting and teaching skills during a very busy summer:
He taught at the International Workshop for Conductors in
the Czech Republic, conducted concerts at the Sydney Conservatory
in Sydney, Australia, served as musical director of the
Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kan., and conducted
a Rhode Island Symphony Orchestra concert in Boston and
a Houston Symphony Orchestra concert.

Admission for
the Chamber Orchestra performance is free. Admission for
the Symphony Orchestra concert is $7 for the general public
and $5 for students and seniors, reserved seating only.
For tickets, call (713) 348-8000.