Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
2013-08-10
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
307 Church St, Santa Cruz, CA
8:00 PM, Saturday, August 10, 2013

[8:03 PM the orchestra appears to be onstage and ready; 8:05 PM lights down, Introductory comments from ? and Andrew Norman]

[8:m PM work ends; pause; resume at 8:27 PM with introductory comments from ? and Enrico Chapela]

1. Fast
2. Slow
3. Brutal
   [9:01 PM work ends]

[9:30 PM lights down; brief introduction from ?Brad Lubman? about the 10th Symphony]

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. Black and White Scherzo
   [10:03 PM work ends]

• Marin Alsop: music director;
• Brad Lubman: guest conductor;
• Johannes Moser: electric cello;
• Cabrillo Symphony members TBD.

All in all it was a really fine evening tonight. The first piece, Unstuck was definitely the slightest of the three, but it was nonetheless pretty interesting, with good use of percussion, as well as scraping, bowing and blatting. As noted by the composer, the piece begins in media res, and didn't really exhibit much melodic or thematic development. Instead, the work seemed to be a pastiche of atomic elements, with tiny motifs passed around the orchestra, or piled up in a collage of layers like a cake or pastry made of sound.

Much more interesting was Enrico Chapela's Magnetar, which featured a broad palette of effects ranging from spacey to fuzzed-out grunge rock riffing. For the most part, the orchestra provided a simple backdrop for the wild swooshes of midi-fied electric cello, but that was enough to set my impression of the piece, and I'd definitely like to hear it performed again.

The final piece of the night, the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass' 10th Symphony was also very good. Instantly recognizeable, it was nonetheless distinct and different enough to rank as a welcome addition to my memory bank of modern classical works. As with Magnetar, I'd like to hear this work a few more times – hopefully one or both will soon get picked up by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra or another progressive local ensemble.