FROM THE NEW WORLD TO THE OLD WORLD

The Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra presented their “Bon Voyage” concert June 14 in Weill Hall, a few days before departing for a European tour. During their 11 days abroad, they’ll begin in Berlin, where they’ll be coached by the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, attend a Philharmonic concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and perform at a cultural center.

Their next stop will be Leipzig, where they’ll visit the Mendelssohn House Museum and St. Thomas Church, where Bach was Cantor, and perform their second concert nearby. Their final stop in Germany will be in Essen, where they’ll perform a joint concert with a local student orchestra before traveling to the Netherlands for their final concert.

The “Bon Voyage” event opened with selections from Bizet’s two “Carmen” Suites, beginning with the Prelude. From seats halfway back in the orchestra section (the balconies were closed for this concert), the balance seemed to favor the brass at the expense of the strings; on the other hand, the high notes in the Aragonaise, the next section, were very clear. This was followed by the March of the Smugglers. After the cellos introduced the famous Habanera, there was a nice solo by the principal trumpet while the final selection, the famous March of the Toreadors, was kept moving along by lively percussion section sound.

Contemporary Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras hails from the state of Jalisco, the birthplace of Mariachi music. His piece, Mariachitlàn (literally “Land of the Mariachis”) is programmatic, based on visits to Guadalajara’s Plaza de los Mariachis, Jalisco’s capital, where different Mariachis play in every corner, vying against and interrupting one another to gain the crowd’s approval and pesos. It alternates in lighthearted fashion between the 2/4 and 3/4 rhythms of different Mariachi melodies, with a lyrical middle section in 3/4 time. There were solos from principal cellist Anuja Davé, trombonist José Palacios and concertmaster Yihe Wang. The music comes to a sudden halt with a blast on a police whistle (a cop trying to stop the party) answered by the orchestra members shouting “Maricachitlàn” with increasing intensity until the music resumes for a rousing finale. This piece will be a real crowd-pleaser in Europe.

Closing the program, appropriate for an American orchestra visiting Europe, was Dvorák’s E Minor Symphony, subtitled “From the New World.” It was interesting to compare this performance with that of the Santa Rosa Symphony earlier this season. The first movement showed excellent balance between the strings, woodwinds, and brass. The famous English horn theme in the second movement was beautifully played by Luke Bizaca and Henry Miller) on a rather bright-sounding instruments, while the third and fourth movements brought out the symphony’s recursive nature—in which each movement after the first quotes from the preceding ones—very clearly.

Applause from an audience that many family members was enthusiastic for all the pieces, and that for the New World Symphony sufficient to prompt an encore: the third movement of Still’s Afro-American Symphony.