“The violent summer storm that forced a change of venue for the first Saturday concert of the Skaneateles Festival also doused the lights at West Genesee High School during the final piece on the program,” writes Linda Loomis in Sunday’s (8/14) Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.). “Musicians were barely into the leisurely prologue of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 when the auditorium lights flickered and died. No matter, the Festival Orchestra artists continued to play in the dark for several bars, prompting spontaneous applause from the audience. When the lights came back on, [conductor] Tito Munoz … glanced at his score, then faced the crowd and simply said, ‘We’ll have to start at the beginning.’ … By the Allegro con brio, the music seemed to mimic the flashing lightning outside, flashing with intense energy to a fiery conclusion…. A concert that might have imploded [with] venue change, and nature’s interruptions, instead shone as a memorable component of the Skaneateles Festival’s long legacy. For the success, praise goes to the talented artistic directors Aaron Wunsch and Julia Bruskin.” Also on the program were works by Mozart, Dvořák (the Romance for Violin and Orchestra, featuring concertmaster Sarah Crocker Vonsattel), and Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner.
Posted August 15, 2016
