Concert Weekend

The semester has ended for the Claremont Concert Orchestra with our final concert. True to form for us, the Sunday afternoon concert was better than Saturday night (which was not true for the October concerts). On the program was Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, Concerto for Two Pianos by Poulanc and Romeo and Juliet Overture by Tchaikovsky. The audience was quite enthusiastic, and I feel as though we have improved greatly since September.

While the Brahms and Tchaikovsky are fairly well known, the Poulanc was new to me. It is an odd piece with a variety of ideas and styles sprinkled throughout the three movements. Since we've worked on it for the past month and a half, I have grown to like it, but it might have taken the audience a little while to get used to it. Of course, the two Scripps student-pianists were wonderful and captivated the audience. To hear the piece, you have several choices on youtube. This version (first movement) features Poulanc himself as one of the soloists. The other two movements are also on youtube.