Student orchestra performs at Jesse
Published Sept. 26, 2006
The city's status as a college town was apparent Friday at the University Philharmonic Orchestra's first performance of the school year at Jesse Auditorium. The concert featured MU students and an assistant professor entertaining fellow students and Columbia residents.
Along with the Columbia Civic Orchestra's monthly performances from October to May — except for January — and the Missouri Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Missouri Theatre each summer, MU is one of the regular purveyors of fine art in the city.
The MU School of Music puts on multiple performances every month throughout the year. Its performances are free for students.
On Friday night, the University Philharmonic Orchestra began its season with four pieces by Alan Hovhaness and César Franck's "Symphony in D Minor." For the Hovhaness set, Iskander Akhmadullin, an assistant trumpet professor at MU, accompanied the orchestra. It wasn't until the Franck "Symphony" that the brass, winds and percussion sections rounded out the sound.
The selections represented diversity in sound for classical music. Although Hovhaness was born in America, his music draws on his Armenian heritage. Franck is a Belgian 19th-century composer, and Belgium's location between France and Germany helped Franck meld the two countries' dominant — and wholly different — Romantic-era styles.
Opening with "Armenian Rhapsody No. 3, Opus 189," the Orchestra relayed the eastern European roots of the piece with adequate emotion and professionalism. The string players harmonized wonderfully without the brass and winds, with the sections alternating by one playing rapid melody lines and the other providing steady organ-like, eastern-tinged drones or rhythmic plucking.
Next came "Prayer of Saint Gregory," which featured Akhmadullin for the first time. It was a consummation of the religious theme and further Armenian pride as Saint Gregory the Illuminator introduced Christianity to the country. "Armenian Rhapsody No. 2, Opus 51," one of the more haunting selections, followed.
Akhmadullin returned for the Hovhaness set closer, "Haroutiun 'Resurrection,' Aria and Fugue, Opus 71," which is a tribute to Hovhaness's father.
The second half of the concert featured Franck's three-movement "Symphony in D Minor," characterized by cyclical melodies and lush harmonies. The "Symphony" allowed for the Orchestra's formidable brass and wind sections to show off and lead the strings.