The strange lure of rhythm by the Orlando Philharmonic

On Saturday, Feb. 13, no, I didn’t stay home to watch yet another “debate” of the Republican candidates for the presidency – I did something far more interesting. I went to the Bob Carr Theater to enjoy a beautiful evening of music by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra – an excellent choice!

Boston Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Marcelo Lehninger, was guest conductor for the evening activities – and a fine conductor he is!

He handled the goings on with great expertise and the orchestra responded in-kind.

Samuel Barber’s jolly, fun-filled and energetic overture to “The School for Scandal” opened the evening’s festivities, setting the spirit for things to come.

The highlight of the evening was George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” with extraordinary piano soloist Stewart Goodyear, an artist whom b.w. and I first brought here in 1999 with the Toronto Symphony. Goodyear expressed his pleasure at returning here, and he left an indelible mark on the audience. We both thought that we had never heard the Concerto played better in all our years of concert-going! The audience rose and cheered Mr. Goodyear long and loudly. He delighted his hearers by throwing in an intricate Beethoven encore that left no doubt as to his masterful virtuosity.

After intermission a smaller-sized chamber orchestra played Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite,” which featured showing off of solo offerings by the first chairs.

The evening closed with Maurice Ravel’s famous “Bolero,” which brought back memories of a movie of the early ’30s based on the “Bolero” composition starring, if I remember correctly, George Raft and maybe Ida Lupino. The couple danced their way through the film and then to the last strains of “Bolero,” Raft falls dead on the floor as a sacrifice to God knows what.

Now a rip-roaring version of the “Bolero” about once every few years is good enough, and the OPO supplied just that. Whenever “Bolero” is played, with its steady unrelenting hypnotic beat, I look around the hall to watch people who might not have heard the piece before. The music remains the same – could it be that I, the listener, have lost some of my youthful energy? “Bolero” is always exciting to hear as the insistent rhythmic repetitions pile up. Last nights crashing climax to my ears could have been even more of a crash, no huge cymbals or gongs.