You could not ask for a better venue. You could not ask for a better regional orchestra. And you could not ask for a better crowd, as more than 10,000 people packed into LeClaire Park on Saturday with blankets, wine, snacks, and the desire to end the summer right at the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s Riverfront Pops concert.
Chamber music is highlighted by individuality, expressiveness, and an intimate musical experience. It’s a treat for the ears, and a break from the heaviness of orchestral concerts. Fortunately, the Quad Cities has a robust chamber tradition, and much of this can be attributed to the work of Chamber Music Quad Cities (CMQC).
One name saved a frozen evening. Christian Lindberg. On what was the most treacherous weather night the Quad Cities had seen in a while, Lindberg – Sweden’s famous solo artist and rare solo trombonist – dazzled the sparse Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) audience with flashy clothes, incredible playing, and rarely performed but easily accessible trombone concertos.
At the February 2 Quad City Symphony Orchestra concert, the crowd was noticeably perplexed by the divergent Barber Violin Concerto and seemingly in pain sitting through Mahler’s lengthy but cheery Fourth Symphony.
It’s doubtless Beethoven was a genius of rare proportion and that his music stands as a monument in the canon of classical music, yet his placement on the musical timeline put an unusual burden on his output. On one hand, he was a classicist, falling at the end of the classical period and tutored by one of its masters, Franz Joseph Haydn.
Sergei Rachmaninoff was an average composer and an excellent performer. He composed mainly in the 20th Century, yet the Romantic idiom dominated his work; while other composers were exploring the edges of modern composition, Rachmaninoff was unable to move beyond the high drama of the 1800s.
The Quad City Symphony Chamber Series is quickly becoming a favorite. Beginning its second year as a concert staple, the regular symphony players kicked the sub-season off on October 21 with a performance at Augustana College’s Wallenberg Hall.
Eastern Iowa is fast becoming a cultural hub between Chicago, Minneapolis, and Omaha. With stops in Iowa City by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and most recently mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade, Quad Citians have been within a 40-minute drive and a $10 ticket price of world-renowned performers.
Giuseppe Verdi originally wrote only a portion of his Messa da Requiem (conceived to honor Rossini) with the hope that other composers would join in him in completing it, but the project never materialized.
Enchanted with the ideals of the French Revolution, Beethoven originally dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte. But when Napoleon declared himself emperor, Beethoven tore up the title page and renamed the symphony the “Heroic symphony, to celebrate the memory of great man.

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