eveningsout
We're not in church
Communication swathed in drama is focus of this orchestra's conductor
by Richard M. Berrong
Cleveland's newest symphonic ensemble, Red (an orchestra), begins its fourth season next weekend. I had a chance to discuss the group and their upcoming concerts with conductor Jonathan Sheffer, an openly gay musician who has also composed film scores and several operas, including an adaptation of Gertrude Stein's Blood on the Dining Room Floor.
Sheffer spoke at length about his vision of what the concert experience should be in the 21st century and how he is leading Red along those lines.
The traditional model, an outgrowth of 19th-century German aesthetics, was that a symphonic concert should be like a church service: one went for an elevating moral and aesthetic experience that was handed down from on high for one's betterment.
For Sheffer, an orchestra performance should be communication swathed in drama. Concert pieces should be performed not simply because the musicians want to play them, but because the conductor sees something important in them that he wants to convey to the audience. It is the conductor's job, he feels, to make sure that the audience sees how and why each concert has been put together as it is.
To this end, Red begins their season November 5 with a staged presentation of Gustav Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer, some orchestrated by Sheffer himself, coupled with songs by Mahler's wife. Alma Mahler gave up her own career as a composer to be a full-
time wife, which Sheffer sees as an example of the individual who interrupts her or his creative development to deal with life's demands. He will highlight this by mixing readings from the couple's correspondence with the music.
On December 8 the orchestra will offer a new take on Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors. Commissioned by NBC television in 1951, the one-act opera tells the story of a handicapped shepherd boy who meets the Three Wise Men as they make their way to Bethlehem. As part
Red (an orchestra} is proud to present
of his effort to "rethink the standard repertory," Sheffer will set the work in a homeless shelter in present-day Cleveland. The opera will unfold as the dream of a young boy in a wheelchair, the various Night Visitors expressions of his fantasies and desires.
The final concert, on February 4, will be devoted to the difference and uniqueness of film music. Sheffer will begin by explaining how he composed the soundtrack for a movie, breaking down its scenes and illustrating what was involved. Then, turning to the music of one of his favorite contemporary American composers, he will do the same with John Corigliano's score for The Red Violin.
LAURA ROSSIGNOL
Jonathon Scheffer
For the second half of that concert, he has commissioned Leo Villareal to create digital art that will interpret Sheffer's conducting of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. This will, again, provide another dimension to the musical experience, deepening the audience's sense of Beethoven with a more abstract version of what Disney did with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor at the opening of Fantasia.
For more information about these concerts, consult Red's website, www.redanorchestra.org.
In Mahler's Shadow Saturday November 5, 2005
Red ventures into Gustav Mahler's shadow through his wife Alma's diary excerpts, & theatrical representations of the music and their relationship. 8:00 p.m. Masonic Auditorium
For Tickets 440.519.1733 or www.redanorchestra.org
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IT'S NOT OVER
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