With a flick of the wrist and a sweeping downbeat, guest conductor Catherine Comet led the Quad City Symphony Orchestra into the first strains of its concert on Saturday, December 4. The musicians, under the graceful yet commanding baton of Comet, performed Georges Bizet’s Symphony in C and Aaron Copland’s Symphony No.
3.
Comet has directed orchestras in her native Paris and in the United States. Her animated conducting style and perceptive interpretation of the program drove the symphony to deliver a forceful performance. From a seeming embrace to an upturned fist, her arms seemed to draw the music from the musicians.
Comet began the concert with Bizet’s Symphony in C, written when Bizet was just 17, studying music at the Paris Conservatory. Despite his youth, Bizet entwined dynamics, technicality, and tempo to produce contrast and interest.
Light and airy, the first movement proceeded at a fast, but controlled, clip and combined triumphant brass with lilting strings. The second movement began with slow, deeply harmonious chords. More emotional than the first, this movement used changes in dynamics and a beautiful oboe solo to create a sense of yearning. The almost sensual melody, introduced in several voices of the orchestra and at differing tempos, made this movement my favorite of the evening.
The third movement returned to the tempo of the first. The timpani and brass enforced a march-like feel, which was interspersed with smoothly articulated passages. Finally, the fourth movement burst into being with a huge boom and dizzyingly fast runs in the strings. I was amazed once again by the symphony’s ability to handle technicality like this at the breakneck speed for which Comet showed an affinity. I got tired just watching their fingers fly up and down the necks of the instruments.
After a brief intermission, the orchestra, once again led by Comet, tackled Copland’s Symphony No. 3. The piece began with a forceful unison melody. A counter-melody in the brass quickly took shape with a crescendo to a blaring, unnerving phrase climax. An oboe emerged from the fray with a sweet solo, joined by the viola and harp. A pattern began to emerge: harsh brass abruptly giving way to heartfelt wind melodies.
As an audience member, I never got comfortable. Copland’s talented use of dissonance, extremely high notes, and overwhelmingly loud dynamics made me restless through the entire movement. At the very end of the first movement, the orchestra returned to the sweet, slightly dissonant melody, and Comet slowed the orchestra to an end that faded away to nonexistence.
The second movement was supported by strong percussion, and alternated triumphant brass lines with almost toy-like piano and xylophone sections. A flitting, birdlike clarinet, oboe, and flute trio and a section of syncopated cello-plucking contrasting with a smooth violin melody were highlights of this piece.
The next movement added more unpleasant sounds to the repertoire of the first, including the thack of the wood blocks, the sharp strike of the snare drum, a nervous piccolo, and violin passages so high they were almost extraterrestrial. Several times the winds began a comforting melody, yet Copland introduced dissonant notes more and more often until it also became harsh and foreboding.
Similar in feel and sound, the third and fourth movements ran into each other, so I’m not sure where one ended and the other began. Somewhere around the beginning of the fourth movement, the clarinet and flute introduced a theme better known (at least to me) as the one used for the Olympics. The brass took up the triumphant theme, playing in unison the deliberate, broad tones. Strong tympani and gong emphasized its majestic presence. The oboe and cello then took over, playing with the theme and creating a babbling brook of sound later joined by the strings.
A technical fray of brass, frantic piano, harp, and flute ensued, interrupted sporadically by smooth, syncopated lines in the lower strings with wispy high violins above.
Comet has directed orchestras in her native Paris and in the United States. Her animated conducting style and perceptive interpretation of the program drove the symphony to deliver a forceful performance. From a seeming embrace to an upturned fist, her arms seemed to draw the music from the musicians.
Comet began the concert with Bizet’s Symphony in C, written when Bizet was just 17, studying music at the Paris Conservatory. Despite his youth, Bizet entwined dynamics, technicality, and tempo to produce contrast and interest.
Light and airy, the first movement proceeded at a fast, but controlled, clip and combined triumphant brass with lilting strings. The second movement began with slow, deeply harmonious chords. More emotional than the first, this movement used changes in dynamics and a beautiful oboe solo to create a sense of yearning. The almost sensual melody, introduced in several voices of the orchestra and at differing tempos, made this movement my favorite of the evening.
The third movement returned to the tempo of the first. The timpani and brass enforced a march-like feel, which was interspersed with smoothly articulated passages. Finally, the fourth movement burst into being with a huge boom and dizzyingly fast runs in the strings. I was amazed once again by the symphony’s ability to handle technicality like this at the breakneck speed for which Comet showed an affinity. I got tired just watching their fingers fly up and down the necks of the instruments.
After a brief intermission, the orchestra, once again led by Comet, tackled Copland’s Symphony No. 3. The piece began with a forceful unison melody. A counter-melody in the brass quickly took shape with a crescendo to a blaring, unnerving phrase climax. An oboe emerged from the fray with a sweet solo, joined by the viola and harp. A pattern began to emerge: harsh brass abruptly giving way to heartfelt wind melodies.
As an audience member, I never got comfortable. Copland’s talented use of dissonance, extremely high notes, and overwhelmingly loud dynamics made me restless through the entire movement. At the very end of the first movement, the orchestra returned to the sweet, slightly dissonant melody, and Comet slowed the orchestra to an end that faded away to nonexistence.
The second movement was supported by strong percussion, and alternated triumphant brass lines with almost toy-like piano and xylophone sections. A flitting, birdlike clarinet, oboe, and flute trio and a section of syncopated cello-plucking contrasting with a smooth violin melody were highlights of this piece.
The next movement added more unpleasant sounds to the repertoire of the first, including the thack of the wood blocks, the sharp strike of the snare drum, a nervous piccolo, and violin passages so high they were almost extraterrestrial. Several times the winds began a comforting melody, yet Copland introduced dissonant notes more and more often until it also became harsh and foreboding.
Similar in feel and sound, the third and fourth movements ran into each other, so I’m not sure where one ended and the other began. Somewhere around the beginning of the fourth movement, the clarinet and flute introduced a theme better known (at least to me) as the one used for the Olympics. The brass took up the triumphant theme, playing in unison the deliberate, broad tones. Strong tympani and gong emphasized its majestic presence. The oboe and cello then took over, playing with the theme and creating a babbling brook of sound later joined by the strings.
A technical fray of brass, frantic piano, harp, and flute ensued, interrupted sporadically by smooth, syncopated lines in the lower strings with wispy high violins above.
