The Sedona Community and Youth Orchestra played its annual spring concert at the Sedona Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, April 29, under the direction of cofounders Kristina Beachell and Courtney Yeates. The concert’s theme was “From Mozart to Magic: A Musical Rainbow,” and the Sedona members were joined for the occasion by several Flagstaff players.
This year’s program was shorter and more focused than last year’s, without the solos and duos that showcased some of the graduating students. The ensemble remains a string orchestra for now, although supplemented on this occasion with timpani and a drum kit. They opened with Yeates conducting a short Brian Balmages piece, “Spartacus,” exhibiting a woody sound that benefited from the addition of the guest cellists. The orchestra’s rendition of the final segment from Giacchino Rossini’s overture from “William Tell” was a bit down-tempo but had good tone, and, in an arrangement for strings, gave the listeners a chance to hear that writing for once without it blending into the background of the brass. By the time the musicians rolled back around to the final repetition of the initial theme, they were getting into the spirit of the music as well.
Beachell took a turn leading the ensemble in two selections by John Williams from the Harry Potter films, beginning with the famous “Hedwig’s Theme,” rendered on piano with supporting strings, and followed by “Harry’s Wondrous World,” which came across with a great deal more warmth. Two other contemporary works followed: Kirt Mosier’s “Waltz of the Wicked” and an arrangement of the theme from the 2010 film version of “Alice in Wonderland” by Danny Elfman.
The Mosier waltz was a shrill and prickly piece, with the basses, already strongly in evidence, expressing themselves especially well in combination with the pizzicato from the violins. It ended as a collected tune to which one could actually dance. The “Alice” excerpt was better still, strong and energetic with a powerful surge in the low portions and the orchestra achieving improved tone and accuracy even in most of the higher parts. The timpani proved very useful and Sedona Red Rock High School orchestra teacher Cody McKesson — who was supposed to be playing third fiddle — doubled up on the drum kit, adding a surprising amount of depth. It was good music-making.
Beachell also led the program’s four Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart choices, which had been selected from the soundtrack of the film “Amadeus.” The piano was absent in the initial excerpt from the Piano Concerto No. 22, the very jolly one Mozart plays at the afternoon concert in the film, but present for the selection from the Piano Concerto No. 20.
Between the piano parts, the orchestra played the “Confutatis” from the Requiem Mass, again exposing the lines of the strings for the audience’s benefit — and for far too short a time, it seemed. Their rendition of the Symphony No. 25, the one that plays at the beginning of the film over the scene of Antonio Salieri’s attempted suicide, started slow, then picked up impressively as the players sped up, oddly enough.
The four Edvard Grieg pieces from the composer’s suite from “Peer Gynt” fell to Yeates’ lot. “Morning” offered perceptible layering, with the different sections eventually merging into a single sound, and a nice little final flourish from concertmaster Vincent Smith-Shayawatt; “Aase’s Death,” though slow and sombre, was played with effective feeling, with the musicians making music even in the sadness. The orchestra also appeared to respond more cohesively the more fluid that Yeates’ conducting became. “Anitra’s Dance” began with a good coherent tremolo and clear sound from the second violins, and the fourth and last selection, “Hall of the Mountain King,” included some odd note changes in the arrangement but was far too short to let the musicians build to a frenzy, which, after the “Alice,” the audience was in no doubt they were capable of doing.
Last on the program was “Over the Rainbow” as performed by Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole, in which the violins evinced much improved bowing technique, clear and light, and the upper and lower registers alternated bowing and pizzicato.
“You’ve got to admit it,” Robin Hood says to Little John in the 1973 animated film right after escaping from the sheriff’s men. “They are getting better.” So is the SCYO. The orchestra’s performance in the lower ranges of a piece is better than their performance in the higher ranges, although the sound balance is avoiding excessive shrillness now, and the violinists are improving. While it is perhaps unsurprising that they tend to start pieces more slowly and pick up the tempo as they go along, the interesting twist is that their playing also gets better as they get faster — perhaps giving support to the views of those musicologists who assert that every work contains its proper tempo within itself and all musicians have to do is discover it. Sedona’s community orchestra is apparently discovering it.
