Press
The Tribune Chronicle
March 26th, 2009
Warren Philharmonic offers world tour for season finale
By SUSAN DAVENNY WYNER Special to the Tribune Chronicle
Saturday evening at Packard Music Hall, the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra invites you to ''Swing into Spring!'' with a gala concert that celebrates our scouts and scouting masters with music that is guaranteed to put a spring in your step.
The program takes us on a whirlwind tour of marches and dance music from around the world - the Czech Republic, Russia, Mozart's Salzburg, Vienna, Spain and, of course, the United States, represented by excerpts from ''Fiddler on the Roof.'' The pieces are all favorites - even if you don't recognize the titles, I know you will have some ''Aha, so that's what that is!'' moments. That's part of the fun.
We kick off the evening with two exuberant Slavonic Dances by Antonin Dvorak. The opening "furiant" is famous for tangling feet as it goads the dancers to go faster and faster. Brahms loved these dances, which caused a frenzy of excitement when they first came out. It is easy to see why.
Next we slip back in time to greet Mozart - this time in the theater, not in the ballroom. These dances from his opera ''Idomeneo'' are dramatic, surprising, full of quick shifts of mood, and tell a story of kings, storms, ancient sea gods and abandoned princesses. Written for the greatest dancers of his time, they would send decorously dressed ballroom dancers scurrying in disarray.
Our magic carpet now takes us to Russia for another set of opera dances, Alexander Borodin's popular Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. It's hard to believe that these exotic, wild, irresistible dances came from a hardworking professional chemist who only wrote music in his spare time.
After intermission, we travel to Vienna to meet a famous father and son - Johann Strauss Sr. and Johann Strauss Jr. The younger gives us his ''Blue Danube Waltz.'' The father treats us to his Radetzky March - so infectious that at the first performance the audience began clapping each time the main tune returned. That tradition remains to this day.
We close our journey with two famous theater pieces - highlights from ''Fiddler on the Roof''' and Ravel's amazing ''Bolero.'' Ravel would be stunned to know how popular his ''Bolero'' has become. It is positively hypnotizing to hear the way the opening rhythm and tune wind their way through all the instruments of the orchestra to build that final grand conflagration.
As we gather together to celebrate, we also want to reach out to those in our community who are going through difficult times. Audience members are invited to bring non-perishable food items to the concert. There will be containers for collection so the goods can then be disturbed locally to those in need.
The Philharmonic is one of many orchestras nationwide joining together to help their local communities by gathering food for an "Orchestras Feeding America National Food Drive" this weekend. One in eight people in our country don't know where their next meal is coming from. Please be as generous as you can.
I look forward to seeing you Saturday night.
Wyner is the music director and conductor of the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fact Box
Conductor, composer collaborate on music and in life
By ANDY GRAY
Warren Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Susan Davenny Wyner normally doesn't have to worry about what the composers think of how she interprets their work.
Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart and the like haven't been around for centuries to offer critiques.
That wasn't the case for the three orchestral works she conducted on a CD released earlier this month.
The music was written by her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner.
Released by Bridge Records, ''Orchestral Works by Yehudi Wyner'' features the debut recording of his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, the piano concerto with orchestra ''Chiavi in Mano.''
The cello concerto ''Prologue and Narrative'' and ''Epilogue: In Memory of Jacob Druckman'' were recorded in Denmark with Susan Davenny Wyner leading the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and ''Lyric Harmony'' is a live recording of a 2008 performance with Wyner leading the Boston Festival Orchestra.
Wyner said she loved the process of conducting her husband's work, although she added, ''I think it's good we'd been married for a long time first.''
Susan Davenny Wyner started her musical career as a classical singer until she suffered permanent vocal damage in a hit-and-run accident.
Working with her husband as a conductor brought back that experience.
''It's been a very special way for me to hear the deepest things that are in his heart and soul and bring them to life,'' she said. ''To have him go, 'Yes, that works' or 'No, move it here or shape it here.''