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Can't Finish with the Unfinished

Photo courtesy: Unsplash.com

After much consideration, and conversations with people interested in helping me present the best concert possible, I have come to the conclusion I can't finish my concert with the Unfinished Symphony. The concern? If we play it beautifully, the soft ending relaxes people too much for them to get excited about the wonderful concert. We don’t want to hear the last chord float through the hall and the listeners all sigh contentedly. We want them to scream with excitement.
          The concert is labeled," Classic with a Twist." Perhaps the twist is we play the symphony in the first half, and the Handel Water Music as the closer. Lots of brass in the Hornpipe that finishes the Hamilton Hardy arrangement of the Water Music, and that should help pull people up out of their seats and get them cheering at the end.
          Beautiful endings CAN pull people out of their seats cheering, but too often the opposite happens. I've seen this, and you probably have too, in professional orchestra concerts as well. If the Houston Symphony can't follow a quiet ending with noisy applause, how can I expect to do so in a VCO (Volunteer Community Orchestra)?
          So the Handel Water Music Suite moves from first to last. We close with a Baroque composer, and to balance things out, we open with one as well: Corelli.
          Our VCO has never had a string person lead the group, and has avoided all-string music like politicians avoid lie detectors. Time to change that. At least the music part – I'll leave the political angle to others.
          The new plan is to start with the Corelli Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8. Usually known as the Christmas Concerto, we just added another twist – Christmas music in September. If we don't label the piece "Christmas" I don't think anyone will really know – not like we're playing Jingle Bells.
          Open Baroque, close Baroque, but a modern arrangement of Baroque Handel that should make the audiences ears ring with the last trumpet notes. Cheers follow (we hope). More details about the pieces between the two next time.

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