by Stephanie Manning
There are very few American cities who can count themselves as having an official fanfare. But now, Akron is one of them.
To celebrate the city’s 200th anniversary, Tuesday Musical commissioned composer Peter Boyer to write Festive Fanfare (For Akron’s Bicentennial). More than a concert piece, a recording of the four-minute fanfare will soon be made available for open-access use at Akron civic events. On April 22, a packed house heard it live for the first time as part of a wide-ranging program by the brass and percussion players of The Cleveland Orchestra.
“Kid — candy store,” Boyer said from the stage at E.J. Thomas Hall, gesturing to himself and then the musicians to describe his excitement. [Read more…]
While Sergei Prokofiev’s third piano concerto receives more than its fair share of visits to the concert stage, and even his first concerto makes appearances from time to time, what about the composer’s second concerto — why does it languish in obscurity?
“I can look at all four symphonies of Brahms and say, ‘Oh that one is my favorite.’ Then I think, ‘No this one is,’” conductor Daniel Hege said during a recent telephone conversation. “But I have so much admiration for the Second Symphony. It has a lot of passion and emotional power all the way through, including a brilliant finish.”