Classical music and funk enliven the Three Rivers Arts Festival
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PSO music director Manfred Honeck (center) and musicians at the Three Rivers Arts Festival Sunday evening. -
PSO at TRAF. -
PSO music director Manfred Honeck.
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Shorts, sundresses, kettle corn and funnel cake: Is there any other way to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra?
Sunday evening, the PSO performed at the Three Rivers Arts Festival for the first time in 34 years, in the process returning to Point State Park for the first time since Independence Day 2005.
If the attentive crowd camped out in front of the Dollar Bank stage were any indication, this outdoor concert will be the start of a new streak at the festival.
The sun and humidity can wreak havoc on the musicians' instruments. But if they are fragile, the musicians aren't. They vigorously launched into a program of Bernstein, Beethoven, Dvorak, Viennese waltzes and, of course, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture."
By avoiding pops fare more amenable to an outside venue, PSO music director Manfred Honeck said he wanted, "to show what it is that we do in Heinz Hall." Those who were impressed will likely be more so if they hear the orchestra in the excellent acoustics of its home in the Cultural District. It's not that the audio was bad at the festival, but miking an orchestra dampens its natural reverberation.
But children playing, dogs laying and people relaxing made up for that. Having classical music center stage -- and free -- is crucial not just for the nonprofit orchestra, but for those who might be touched by music they don't hear often. I heard one festival-goer say, only half-jokingly, "I love the oldies." But the truth is that more people connect to this music than those who attend concerts regularly. All the proof needed were the sports-like cheers for trumpeter George Vosburgh after his energetic soloing in a Hummel concerto and the enthusiastic whoops as the firework cannon-shots exploded during the end of the "1812 Overture."
-- Andrew Druckenbrod: adruckenbrod@post-gazette.com
First Published June 6, 2011 10:07 am
