On Saturday, April 6, the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra closed its 2023-2024 Symphonic Series with “Roman Holiday,” a thrilling program of music both from and about the sunny lands of the Mediterranean.
The evening opened with “Fandangos,” a piece by Cornell University-based composer Roberto Sierra that evoked Spanish dance forms of the eighteenth century, replete with bold, Andalusian-style trumpets and assertive percussion. Aided by the committed conducting of Maestro Daniel Hege, Sierra took the orchestra to extremes of speed, volume, and emotional impact. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s dazzling showpiece “Capriccio Italien” followed, with a martial chorus of brass and a seductive medley of folk tunes, played by the orchestra with shimmering lyricism.
The high point of the “Roman Holiday” concert, though, was Ottorino Respighi’s stunning “Pines of Rome,” an orchestral experience of the Eternal City and its iconic pine trees.
The Philharmonic was expanded to its largest size for this piece, with 75 musicians onstage and six more in the theater boxes overlooking the audience – trumpets and trombones that Respighi meant to invoke Roman legions marching on the Appian Way. As always with this ensemble, the woodwinds shone, with stand-out solos from flutist Karen Bogardus, clarinetist Paul Wongjin Cho, oboist John Lathwell, and bassoonist Melissa Kritzer; hornist Alex Shuhan and trumpeter Frank Campos also provided dazzling moments.
Maestro Hege led the orchestra with his trademark elegance and expressiveness, infusing Respighi’s astonishing work with lyrically shaped phrases and passionate crescendos that stirred the soul.
A standing ovation and many bows for Hege and the orchestra were proof of the power of this music and of the great skill of the Binghamton Philharmonic.
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