By Jenna Luginbill, for the CVPost
Who: Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra and Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra
When: Dec. 7, 2018
Where: Pablo Center at the Confluence, RCU Theater
A near-capacity audience Friday night heard from almost 70 of the Eau Claire area’s finest musicians at the “Let’s Go Nut(s)Cracker” concert by the Chippewa Valley symphony Orchestra and the Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra.
The RCU Theater was full of local music aficionados, with at least 600 tickets sold Friday evening.
Before attending the concert, I talked with one of my high school band directors, Scott Hensiak, about what to expect.
“It will be a great opportunity to celebrate such a rich wealth of hard work that goes on here,” he said, “so I hope that audience members take it as an opportunity to continue their support of music in schools and in the community-it makes us all better people.”
Hensiak is the CVJO’s second tenor saxophone player and doubles on the clarinet when needed.
Unique format
This concert’s format was unique in comparison to others I have attended. The CVJO was positioned on the left side of the stage and the CVSO on the right side. The first half of the concert felt like a “battle of the bands” competition, with the CVSO playing a piece followed by the CVJO playing a jazz arrangement of the same piece.
During the first half of the concert the ensembles performed “Hungarian Dance No. 5” by Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”, and the first movement of two symphonies: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Symphony No. 40” and one of my favorites of the night, Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5.”
The CVSO played the original score of each piece, followed by the CVJO playing a jazz arrangement.
The CVSO played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony beautifully, with great discipline within all sections of the orchestra. This piece was a great choice to demonstrate the strengths of the wind instruments, the talent of the string players, and the balance between the two.
At some points during the symphony you can hear certain instruments above all others in the orchestration. One of these moments is when the French horns are heard above all and enthrall the audience with the melody.
As the symphony went on it felt as if every note was waiting for permission from conductor Nobuyoshi Yasuda’s hands. The final note rang through the hall leaving me thankful for the privilege of hearing this performance.
“. . . a tough act to follow“
The CVSO’s flawless performance left the Jazz Orchestra – under the direction of guest conductor Bruce Hering – with a tough act to follow. With their rendition of “Beethoven’s 5th goes Latin” arranged by Andy Firth, the Jazz ensemble kept the essence of the original symphony while giving the classic a fun twist.
The sections play very tightly together and for most of the concert the sax section played so crisply that if the audience closed their eyes, they might think there was only one saxophone on stage. The soloists had a “battle” of their own, soloing back and forth between Mike Walk (alto l) and Jeff Walk (trumpet l).
This was great fun for the audience to watch and be a part of as both players demonstrated great technique and discipline on their instruments.
The second half of the concert was the same sort of format but focused solely on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” The CVSO performed the original music and the CVJO performed jazz arrangements of its various movements. This portion of the concert was what everyone in the audience had been waiting to hear.
Two favorites
While every single movement played on Friday night is worthy of a page of its own, my two favorites were the CVSO’s performance of, “The Waltz of the Flowers” and the CVJO’s version of movement No. 2, “Marche”.
“The Waltz of the Flowers” was a joy and privilege to listen to. It featured Olivia Burmeister on the harp, an instrument that is easy to listen to and a joy to hear on its own. During her performance the hall was silent, anticipating her every note.
Throughout the entire concert the orchestra had impeccable balance between the wind instruments and the strings, and it somehow got even better during this composition. When the horns came in with the melody, led by Ben Mackie – the principal French Horn player- the harmonies were just below the melody and perfectly in time.
The strings played this piece with incredible control over each note. All of the featured musicians executed their parts with impeccable timing, precision and tuning. This performance was eye-opening to me, as I never knew we had so many talented musicians in the Eau Claire area.
“Peanut Brittle Brigade“
The CVJO followed with Duke Ellington’s arrangement of the “Marche,” called the “Peanut Brittle Brigade.” This chart featured many talented musicians from the ensemble, especially within the front row of woodwinds. To begin the piece the tempo was slow but quickly changed into a tune anyone can groove to.
At points you could hear the clarinet above all, which is the perfect orchestration for this piece, and Hensiak demonstrated exceptional classical technique with a little bit of jazz fusion. The ensemble had a great sound and played together in balance very well.
Josh Gallagher’s piano solo in the Ellington arrangement sounded as if every note and chord was meant to be a part of the song. Throughout the piece heads were bobbing in enjoyment of this arrangement of a classic.
Sue Orfield’s saxophone solo concluded the Ellington chart. Her notes seemed to never stop as she played various phrases and motifs with an attitude that exuded fun yet pure raw talent to the audience. Her sax filled the entire hall like no other sound that night.
To end the night both groups joined each other for their own rendition of, “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. The piece started exactly how one would expect with the CVSO’s flawless execution until the CVJO came in with a twist that the audience loved. The precision throughout this piece in both groups was a pleasure to listen to and, to end it, all trumpet players got to play the classic horse neigh.
This concert was an absolute pleasure to attend, I urge you to attend the next performances of each group: Feb. 2 for the CVSO and the CVJO on Feb. 23, to hear some of the area’s finest, most disciplined musicians.
Jenna Luginbill is a first-year student at UW-Eau Claire, where she is a member of the Blugold Marching Band. She is a 2018 graduate of Memorial High School, where she played the alto saxophone in various music ensembles for four years. She will be reviewing local music events periodically for the Chippewa Valley Post.