MSO saves best for last with 'Finale Fantastique'

IVY FARGUHESON

Apr 19

MSO saves best for last with 'Finale Fantastique'

MUNCIE — With its 60th anniversary season coming to a close, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra wowed the audience at Emens auditorium Saturday evening with musical works that were rich, complex and soothing to the ear.

The musical portion of the evening began with a moving piece honoring late donor Hamer Shafer, a longtime supporter who passed away nearly a month ago. Played with a softness that evoked appreciation more than sadness, the beginning work also demonstrated that the orchestra and the conductor prepared their best work for this final concert of the season.

Bassoonist Keith Sweger was the guest artist for the evening, performing Heitor Villa-Lobos’s “Ciranda Das Sete Notas” with the orchestra. Similar to a woman whose strange and harsh features make her beautiful in a non-classical sense, Sweger’s featured performance gave the audience a new view of the bassoon, one that was unbelievably fitting with the wonderful music surrounding it.

The jaw-dropper of the evening, however, was Louis Hector Berloiz’s “Symphonie Fantastique, Opus 14”, a five-part epic of a man’s hallucinogenic trip through various scenes, some frightening, others inviting. Before beginning the piece, musical director Bohuslav Rattay encouraged the audience to be open to the musical journey they were about to experience, suggesting they listen to various movements with closed eyes.

The experience is truly amazing, a stream of consciousness in the musical realm. The orchestra played with incredible softness without dragging the piece and when it was time to travel through a harsh “trip”, they played with a gusto that is as jarring as it is enlightening.

And this is all true without the discordant sounds that one would anticipate when experiencing life through hallucinogens. Less like Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” but more like an un-spiritual but equally thought-provoking “Meditations” by John Coltrane, “Symphonie Fantastique” was an experience that is riveting, but also exhausting.
It is a fitting end to the MSO’s concert season, one that has given the audience a chance to join Rattay and the orchestra musicians on a journey through the classical music canon and beyond.
Hopefully, this performance, the best of the season, is the sign of things to come next year and for years to come.