TSO celebrates American classics
Article published November 21, 2009
TSO celebrates American classics
Practically on the eve of Thanksgiving, the Toledo Symphony and Principal Conductor Stefan Sanderling celebrated American music with an idiosyncratic program of turn-of-the-20th-century music that broke new ground for TSO programming.
Charles Ives and George Gershwin — you don’t see those stereotype-busting classical composers juxtaposed on many programs. Classics Series audiences had never heard the orchestra perform either of the two Ives pieces or one of the Gershwin works before this third concert in the series.
But the idea worked and reminded once more of the great energy, inventiveness, and diversity of music created by residents of this amazing country. And had the performance quality been greater, the program would have succeeded even further.
The evening opened with Ives’ Variations on “America,” a sort of random sampling of that familiar American anthem played forward, backward, upside, downside, and all around. Clever and full of promise — Ives wrote it at age 17 for organ; William Schumann arranged it for orchestra much later — it made for a fine kickoff for the evening, even with a less than adept and convincing performance.
Ives Symphony No. 3, a TSO premiere, showed the composer at his mature best. The performance, however, seemed to lack conviction.
Happily, both qualities were much in evidence for the program closer, Gershwin’s benchmark American in Paris. Sanderling was clearly in his comfort zone again, making the most of Gershwin’s mercurial moods and ever-changing colors.
The Toledo Symphony, Stefan Sanderling, and Stewart Goodyear will repeat this Classics III concert at 8 p.m. today in the Peristyle. Tickets are $20-60 at www.toledosymphony.com or 419-246-8000.