As the RPO’s 2008-2009 season winds down and we prepare for the new season ahead of us in a newly renovated theatre, we decided to take a look back at the past season and asked RPO musicians and staff: What were your favorite moments of this past season?For me, some of the highlights were the new guitar concerto by Sergio Assad (so neat to see a guitar quartet fronting the Orchestra); the all-French program with pianist Pascal Roge; the Philharmonics’ finale with Holst’s The Planets; and the two recent all-Mozart concerts at Hochstein.
Read on for more season highlights …
- My memorable moments: Herbig's Mahler 6; Ling's Shostakovich 5; Remmereit’s Rachmaninoff 2; Cirque de la Symphonie; playing Tchaikovsky 5th 6 or 7 times on educational concerts at 10:00am!
And another one – Michael Butterman's concert presenting the sound track to the Wizard of Oz. It was great music, extremely difficult, and required phenomenal preparation and leadership from the podium. Michael was sensational, and the orchestra sounded great. The event made a great impression on me, even though I couldn't see anything of the movie!
– Peter Kurau, French Horn - I really enjoyed the Mahler Symphony No. 6 concerts in March. I love Mahler's music and had never gotten to play his Sixth Symphony before. It is such a thrill to be on a stage full of talented musicians playing such great music. We had a great section of nine horn players that week, so it was a lot of fun!
– Stephanie Blaha, French Horn - It's like asking which child is your favorite! So, here are three:
1) Finally coming home to perform on July 4th in Rochester
2) Don Potter and the RPO: "Over the Rainbow"
3) The RPO performing the music of Led Zeppelin. Breathtaking!
– Nancy Zawacki, Vice President of Marketing & Communications. - My favorite parts of this season were the Brahms 2nd Concerto played by John Lill and every second of the rehearsals and performances with Gunther Herbig. Mr. Lill trusted the score to speak for itself, without intervention from a later period's excesses, and the resulting architecture was a monument to Brahms' genius. Maestro Herbig is, along with Jerzy Semkov, one of the last of the great conductors trained in the European tradition that puts quality of sound and phrasing before speed and volume. His Mahler 6th was one of the high points of my career.
– Ken Langley, Violin
