28 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 13-19, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com MUSIC While it is not uncommon for a symphony conductor to have to resolve diverse technical and procedural issues of any given classical program, for Monterey Symphony’s Music Director Jayce Ogren, this weekend’s upcoming concert presented an entirely different set of challenges. “Every season I like to bring at least one unexpected soloist, and the Avner Dorman percussion concerto Eternal Rhythm certainly fits that bill,” Ogren says. “But the problem was physical, not musical. The set up is huge and requires so many percussion instruments on the front of the stage that you almost can’t see the orchestra.” The unusual solution was to redefine the placement of instruments in the hall for the pieces preceding the 2018 composition. “We’ll open with an ancient Baroque brass choir from 1597 by Giovanni Gabrieli of just eight instruments placed in the house, right in the seats of the auditorium,” Ogren says. Those are expected to echo through the building, “like a fanfare foreshadowing the coming of a musical event.” Charles Ives’ existential The Unanswered Question (1908) comes next. “Ives’ instructions for the placement of the instruments are written right in the manuscript,” Ogren points out. “He calls for a string orchestra backstage, hidden from the audience, four wind players onstage—and a lone trumpeter in the auditorium. Perfect.” The percussion concerto will conclude the concert’s first half. Ogren is ebullient about the big, percussion-forward piece. “It has it all: very fast sections with wonderful drive and syncopation that call for virtuosic performance by the soloist along with very slow sections which have a very primal feel,” he says. Following intermission, the program takes a more traditional, 19th-century bent with two masterworks from Johannes Brahms, his Symphony No. 1 and the exuberant and familiar Hungarian Dances No. 5. “Brahms refuses to dumb down the complexities inherent in the medium,” Ogren says of the Romantic period piece. Ogren has paced the pieces for the evening. The Hungarian Dances should provide a rousing finale. Monterey Symphony performs at 7:30pm Saturday, Feb. 15 and 3pm Sunday, Feb 16. Sunset Center, San Carlos Street and 9th Avenue, Carmel. $45-$88; $25/ Carmel Foundation members; $12/students, teachers, military. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org. COURTESY MONTEREY SYMPHONY Rhythm Method The Monterey Symphony presents a challenging series of pieces, with Brahms as the crescendo. By Paul Fried “It took him 20 years of revisions before its first performance due to Brahms’ extreme perfectionism,” musical director Jayce Ogren says of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. FullPg Ad Frame under Edit layer symphony fEBRUARY 15 & 16, 2025 GABRIELI / IVES / DORMAN no. 1 SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL MONTEREYSYMPHONY.ORG JAYCE OGREN MUSIC DIRECTOR
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==