mike and ruth

Grandpa and I attended the concert last night of the Orchestra at Temple Square at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The first piece was a new double concerto for violin and viola by Paul van Brugge, with Igor and Vesna Gruppman playing the violin and viola solos respectively. Violinist Mark Emile, who is also a respected and experienced conductor, directed this world premiere performance. The piece was described for the audience before the performance by Igor. He said it was written as a voyage through the lives of a couple who go through life together and their good and bad times, beginning with two individuals before they become a couple. He said that “this piece isn’t easy to listen to”, and he was right. His description included the word “hope” for the musical content all of the pieces in the concert program. Much of this piece was quite dissonant but there were several moments of consonance through the piece. Grandpa said that he liked it pretty well even if there was some atonality that was very present in the music. The percussion players had quite a bit do to in this piece including counting a lot. The meter changed many times, making a difficult piece even more challenging to keep together. Mark Emile directed his players successfully through the maze with clear and distinct gestures. [During this piece there was a woman in the balcony not too far from where we were that apparently had a health issue of some kind resulting in quite a bit of traffic in the front of the balcony with people walking quietly in front of us back and forth, getting help and then having the helpers come and go with emergency equipment. During the interval between pieces the paramedics came in with a wheelchair but ended up carrying her out, probably because she was unconscious. Since we were on the first row right on the aisle, we were asked to move away while they removed her from the Tabernacle.]
The second half of the concert featured music that was well-known, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and the Suite from West Side Story by Bernstein. We know both of these pieces and they were played with much gusto by the orchestra conducted by Igor Gruppman. It was a very enjoyable evening of music.