Review: Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated literature in music at performance

19 Oct Review: Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated literature in music at performance

EVANSVILLE — Saturday’s fine Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra concert featured a consortium of local artistic forces.

The EPO performed in its pre-COVID fullness while, in the semi-staged production of Mendelssohn’s musical setting of “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” members of the orchestra chorus accompanied sopranos Tiffany Choe and Andrea Drury as seven actors from the Evansville Civic Theatre performed selected scenes from Shakespeare’s play. 

The evening began with a wonderful performance of “Ascending Bird,” a 2004 composition by Colin Jakobsen based on Iranian melodies gathered by Siamak Aghaei.  The piece begins eerily, as brass and wind instruments sustain cluster chords until a violin enters with its cadenza-like solo, beautifully played by Jia-Rong Gan.

After a slow and moody first section, the composition picks up fire and speed.  For this concert, Conductor Roger Kalia had the percussion placed immediately in front of the podium, so important is the driving rhythm to the integrity of the sound. Percussionist Ross Erickson played his cool collection of drums and jangling instruments with great energy and aplomb.

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