Season Finale Symphony - Bartok, Demars

Demos (pictured left) and his wife Jen, Rich (pictured left center) and his wife Lori, Josh and his wife Portia (pictured right), and Amy all attended the Season Finale of the Portland Symphony Orchestra last night. Robert Moody energetically conducted two wonderful performances. The Bartok was clearly everyone's favorite but we all found the Demars interesting. Here was the program from last night:

BARTOK
Concerto for Orchestra
DEMARS
Sabar: Concerto for Senegalese Drums and orchestra

In a recent review of the performances in the Portland Press Herald by Christopher Hyde, he talked about the Bartok piece and how "Moody made the most of the stark contrasts ...ranging from fortissimo to an almost inaudible pianissimo in the introduction....The orchestra obviously got into the spirit of things." and of the Demars piece: "was also vastly entertaining, serving primarily as a showcase for four Senagalese drummers. They provided more than enough variety in pitch, tone and rhythm to justify the term "concerto," without even considering their virtuosity on the drums, generally played with one hand and one stick.
The pleasant orchestral part was reminiscent of the exoticism of Rimsky-Korsakov, purely tonal and imitating some Senegalese instruments and vocal music. It was a good start, but someone needs to pay attention to the nuances of the many musics of Africa, with their complex polyrhythms, microtonal pitches and elaborate counterpoint. A more contemporary approach might work better than traditional Western harmony. An added attraction was the superb Sengalese dancing of N'tifafa Akoko Tete-Rosenthal, Malang Bayo and Alioune N'Diaye, which gave new meaning to the word vivacity – or was it eroticism? It was hard to tell who deserved the standing ovation more – the orchestra, the drummers or the dancers."

The program notes are always insightful and can be found here:
http://www.portlandsymphony.com/Event-86.html