By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO –Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) is to be congratulated for doing a great “mitzvah” by featuring the works of four unfamiliar composers, three of them alive today. All three living composers were present at the performances last month, at the La Jolla Country Day School, November 14, and at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, November 16.
San Diego resident, Arkady Luxemburg, a native of Kishinev, Moldova, where he studied and worked, had his Suite No. 2 for Strings performed. The strings shone in his five movement work, opening with a lyrical Poem and concluding with a lively Toccata.
Herbert Millman, who died in 2003, played trombone and conducted a forty piece concert band in Tampa Florida. Passage of the Way, a short composition symbolizing the history of the Jewish people, featured prominent trombone passages which were well-played by principal trombonist Robert Minnich.
David A. Yeagley, a Comanche Indian from Oklahoma, developed an interest in the Holocaust and its parallels to Indian suffering. His work HaNitzol (The Survivor) for solo oboe and chamber orchestra was written as a memorial tribute to his Holocaust survivor friend Jack P. Eisner, whom Yeagley met in Israel. Oboist Michael Kibbe gave the work an admirable performance. The stark opening was particularly effective and the lone oboe sound at the end conveyed the sadness of the survivor.
Kibbe was not only the oboe soloist for the concert, but he was the composer of the penultimate composition on the program, Aztec Fantasy, a work in three movements:1. Sunrise and Procession, 2. Incantation, and 3. The Sacrifice. Each movement had a distinct character. Kibbe was adept at using the contrasting timbres of the orchestral palette to convey his vision. The final movement, with its incisive rhythmic drive, evoked the primitive sacrificial rites of the ancient Aztecs.
Despite the challenges posed by all the new music, TICO gave excellent renditions of the two pieces which book-ended the concert, the Pique Dame Overture by Von Suppe and the Firebird Suite by Stravinsky. Particularly impressive was the excellent intonation and precise openings and cut-offs in the overture. The La Jolla Country Day School’s auditorium, with its stage and good acoustics, allowed the musicians to hear each other well. Bravo to the musicians and to TICO Director David Amos who continue to champion the works of American composers. Conductor Amos features their works on most of his three dozen recordings.
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Wingard is a retired San Diego Symphony violinist and a freelance writer on music.