Intense performance by Redlands Symphony

It was a night of intense music swirling together in a delightful concert beginning with a somewhat whimsical storytelling tune from Scotland, vigorous music featuring the marimba and culminating with classic Mozart.

Dr. Brenda Montiel, president of the Fallbrook Music Society, sponsors of the event, mentioned that Dr. Jon Robertson, conductor of the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, believes in giving the community a wide range of musical experience. Therefore, he selected two contemporary and easily understandable pieces to be played along with the Mozart symphony.

These distinct styles were presented by the orchestra on November 11 at the Bob Burton Center. The Redlands Symphony was in marvelous form; Maestro Robertson did an outstanding job of coaxing just the right intonation from the skillful musicians.

Everyone can appreciate the Fallbrook Music Society’s concerts, from the erudite musicologist to the first-time concert attendee.

Symphony music is not just for those who understand its complexities. In fact, the person who doesn’t understand the technical aspects of music will just appreciate it on a different level. I, myself, do not read music, nor do I understand Italian terms such as “Andante cantabile,” used to describe Mozart’s “Symphony No. 41 (‘Jupiter’),” but my soul connected with the rhythms.

When the orchestra played the Mozart piece, the graceful melodies whisked me back to a time when I was working in Austria. On summer evenings I attended nightly concerts, which were presented from a white gazebo in a park on the edge of the Vienna Woods. The townspeople would eat their bagged meals and sit on various benches throughout the park or on the soft, slightly dew-dampened grass and listen to strains of Mozart, Beethoven or Strauss. The violin-heavy tunes competed with the trill of the birds hidden among the sprawling branches of the oaks.

Music is like poetry; the poem takes on the inferences and complexities of the reader’s knowledge and experience, which draws the reader to a unique understanding of the piece. Like with poetry, the untrained ear is still able appreciate a depth of music that moves the soul.

During Paul Creston’s “Concertino for Marimba,” William Schlitt delighted the audience as the guest artist on the marimba. The instrument he played is a Western European version -- a hybrid of the archetype, which originated in Guatemala.

Schlitt, who has been working on this particular concertino for a year, adeptly used different sizes of mallets to create varied tones. The artist has been playing percussion since he was thirteen, is now fifty-six and teaches percussion at the university level. Schlitt plays the marimba because he is “drawn to express an artistic endeavor to appreciative audiences and has learned to respond to the instrument in a such way that he can make it happen.”

“An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise,” written by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, is an inspiring opus written in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland. The music is a narrative of a wedding which commences with a violent storm and draws to a close with a glorious sunrise. The music evokes images of Scottish dancers and wild coastal winds. The tale-telling pace of the song is brilliant. The piece culminates with the haunting finality of bagpipe music played by Ian Whitelaw in full kilt regalia.

The Society’s first Christmas concert will feature The Aulos Ensemble from New York, “one of the top Baroque ensembles in the world,” Dr. Montiel told the guests at a post-concert reception.

The concert promises to be a unique experience -- a musical reenactment of history -- because the musicians will not only play Christmas music from the Baroque period but will be using instruments that were fashioned during the same period of time. The concert will also feature Arthur Haas, who has been spoken of as one of the greatest harpsichordists in the country.

“Music is essential to the enrichment of the community; and this is world-class music performed in an acoustically perfect theatre,” Dr. Montiel commented. “It is the same music that you would hear in New York.”

The Aulos Ensemble

Baroque Christmas Concert

Friday, December 7, at 8 p.m.

Bob Burton Center

2400 South Stage Coach Lane

Fallbrook

(760) 451-8644

http://www.fallbrookmusicsociety.org