Thirteen Strings concert was lovely
Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra,
Kevin Mallon, conductor With Virginia Hatfield, soprano and Marion Newman, mezzo-soprano St. Andrew’s Church, Friday at 8 p.m.
Summer Nights was the title of the Thirteen Strings concert Friday evening. The repertoire included music from as long ago as Alessandro Scarlatti’s time (1660-1725) to the early 20th century.
It began with a symphony by Franz Ignaz Beck. Conductor Kevin Mallon led a sparkling account of the score, the last in this season’s traversal of the composer’s complete Opus 2 symphonies.
The more specifically spring-oriented music began with Berlioz’s Le spectre de la rose, sung with feeling by mezzo-soprano Marion Newman. It was the first of several pieces arranged for string orchestra by Mallon. Another was Ivor Gurney’s Loveliest of Trees. Soprano Virginia Hatfield did it nicely.
Another Ivor, this one surnamed Novello, wrote We’ll Gather Lilacs in the Spring, a setting of a French poem with the corresponding French name. There was nothing wrong with soprano Newman’s rendition, nor with Mallon’s arrangement.
Another interesting item was a movement from Tchaikovsky’s incidental music to Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Snow Maiden. The play tells of a fairylike girl who falls for a shepherd. It’s a pretty piece. The Thirteen Strings did a lovely job with it, as has become the little orchestra’s habit.
After the intermission things seemed a little more cosmopolitan. It began with another Tchaikovsky score, the Elegy for String Orchestra. One of the pleasures of hearing it was the reminder of how very good the Thirteen Strings have become. Another instance was Puccini’s Chrysanthemums, a lightweight confection, but a simple pleasure all the same.
The baroque era was represented by an aria called The Violet from an opera by A. Scarlatti, sung by Hatfield.
Each half of the concert ended with a duet, Thomas Moore’s The Last Rose of Summer just before the intermission and the Flower Duet from Leo Delibes’ Lakmé at the very end.
It’s hard to say which was the lovelier, so I won’t.