Lancaster Symphony: Pluckin' Great!

I enjoy classical music but don't know much about it. To listen to unfamiliar music on the off chance I might like it, I turn on NPR or Pandora -- I don't plunk down $40 per ticket and head to the symphony. But last Sunday I was given free tickets to the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, so I grabbed a date and went downtown.


The concert was called "Agony & Ecstasy: Khachaturian & Tchaikovsky." In addition to a concerto by the former and a symphony by the latter, the orchestra played a celebratory piece called "New Beginnings" written by a modern composer, Peter Boyer.


I really enjoyed the music. I was afraid it would be dull and I'd nod off, but it was lively and interesting. The Boyer piece was written to celebrate the opening of a hospital, and I could hear notes reminiscent of building mixed in with the general happy tones.


The Khachaturian concerto featured a soloist, Robert Bokor. I was interested to read in the program that he was a child prodigy, plays across Europe, and wields a 250-year-old instrument. I don't know what I expected a violin soloist to look like, but with his shoulder-length hair and tall, solid frame, Bokor wasn't it. However, he played incredibly well -- and looked as though he enjoyed it, which I always appreciate. The music was lively and had a gypsy lilt that I picked up on even before I consulted the program.


The Tchaikovsky symphony was supposed to be the "agony" of the title -- something about Fate and the sword of Damocles. I have to admit, that was lost on me, although I enjoyed the recurring themes in the music and, especially, the movement that was played primarily as plucked strings. (All of the songs featured plucking, which was a revelation to me. I especially liked the plucked cellos.)


Our seats were bad, as befits freebies -- front row center. Why is that bad? Because at the symphony, all the performers are seated. We were staring at the performers' knees, and just the front row's knees at that! I could hear drums, horns, and woodwinds, but I couldn't see them. However, the seats were ideal for watching the violin soloist's fingers fly during the gypsy-inspired piece. We were also well-placed to watch the conductor, Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser. He's a small man who looked elfin next to the very tall Bokor. Gunzenhauser conducted with his whole body, leaning in to encourage the musicians and beckoning them into the song in a way that I found entertaining but my date, who has played in orchestras, thought was distracting.


On the whole, I enjoyed the evening. The music was good, the performance solid, the acoustics good, the theater, as always, a pleasure to visit. Will I go back? Yes. In checking the orchestra's Web site to see if I recognized anything in the upcoming schedule, I discovered that one of my all-time favorite pieces is scheduled for May:  Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini." I will be delighted to experience this fantastic piece live, along with something new, if only to me.

For information on the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, please visit http://www.lancastersymphony.org/.