The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, partnering with Rollins College since 1935, featured innovative works by composers Christopher Rogerson, Eric Whitacre, Stephen Paulus, Paul Moravec, and Morten Lauridsen. To a packed Knowles Memorial Chapel, magical movements enraptured and delighted those fortunate to be in attendance.
Amidst dramatic passion, John V. Sinclair, Artistic Director and Conductor, commanded above an air of control to where chords dangled slightly out of influence or flawless elucidation. Playing music safe seems to be a pastime not within the bounds of Rollins College or the featured composers; a virtue or a curse? Time and support will stand steady in deciding fate.
Composer Christopher Rogerson Luminosity introduced the evening with an original reflection where intensity detained recognition. Perhaps pushing resistance to expectations forefront… a rewarding transport or a U-turn nearing unintentional vulnerability?
Forging a path for the sake of identity troubled this set to the collective. At times the sense of manufacturing noise, in an effort to ease chaos and for the profit of contradiction, mangled enchantment into over-flowing discord. Denying echo existence, Christopher drove passengers well beyond double-lined encroachment.
Composers Eric Whitacre and Stephen Paulus were featured along with an impressive choir who, by my scorecard, overwhelmed a respectable orchestra sitting patiently and passively. By intermission, Lux Aurumque and Voices of Light left me wondering how far the push would go without going too far.
Eyeing Paul Moraves’s Northern Lights Electric, effortlessness occupied the evening with metaphors consenting personal interpretation, flowing shoulder to shoulder. Taken directly from the notes and test:
“Northern Lights Electric was inspired by an experience he had some years ago on a night-time walk near his home in New Hampshire: ‘I happened to look up to see an astonishing display of the northern lights filling the sky. Among the eerier aspects of such an experience is the majestic light show’s utter silence. The only sound I heard was the hum of a nearby electric streetlamp.’ The music that resulted suggests neither the silence of the light show nor the buzz of a street light per se but the composer’s thorough wonderment at being present amidst such a dazzling and magnificent event.”
The final performance, Lux Aeterna, featured musical poetry. The work opened with the beginning of the Requiem Mass and closed with the ending of the Requiem Mass. Filled by deep sorrow and what could have been, the evening concluded without pause or need for further discovery.
Satiated by climbing heights atop a Northern sky, to unexpectedly descend depths cracked by light-letting, emotional exhaustion no longer submitted isolation… it was time to go home.
A follower of the arts and to the philosophy of advancing blurred lines, innovation must distinguish self propagation from self destruction. Perhaps that is where the masters of art reside, out of reach from propagation while embracing destruction without fear of consequence.
The Back Festival Society, seeking a room to call her own, possesses multiple keys for multiple doors … which door it will open remains their destiny: propagation or destruction.
Interested in paying an active role, consider attending the following upcoming events:
Brooklyn Rider: November 4th, 2012
A Classic Christmas: December 15th and 16th, 2012
Quink: February 10th, 2013
Christopher Houlihan, Organ: February 15th, 2013
Concertos by Candlelight: Mozart: February 22nd and 23rd, 2013
Titans In C: Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn: March 2nd, 2013
Bach’s Timeless Gifts: March 3rd, 2013
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields: March 16th, 2013
Partnership performance with Orlando Ballet
Carmina Burana: April 12th, 13th, 14th, 2013
For tickets or information visit www.BachFestivalFlorida.org or call 407.646.2182
For those in the Greater Central Florida area, the Back Festival Society of Winter Park has earned global respect on a level few organizations can support. Join me and become one in their journey.
Danny Huffman, MA, CEIP, CPRW, CPCC
West Orlando News Online
Got Twitter? Shadow me @dannyatecs
Not a single sentence of this review makes any sense.