“They’re back! The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is a full-fledged performing organization once again,” writes Olin Chism in Friday’s (12/31) Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX). “Any fear that its nearly four-month strike may have caused lasting damage disappeared when its members came on to the Bass Hall stage for a New Year’s Eve program on Saturday night. They were greeted with a full house of cheering, shouting, whistling listeners…. With [Music Director] Miguel Harth-Bedoya at the helm, the orchestra clearly had the audience on its side. Orchestra and leader rewarded their listeners with a program that was sometimes irreverent but always a lot of fun.” In Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with pianist Adam Golka, “At the end, conductor and pianist engaged in a kind of Two Stooges routine in which each tried to out-encore the other.” Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was reimagined “as a sporting contest (conductor versus orchestra) complete with a running commentary (a la a TV sportscast) by the orchestra’s Buddy Bray and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.… More tomfoolery accented by silver and black balloons from the top of Bass Hall and Mardi Gras beads tossed during ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas’ added to the festivities.”
Posted January 3, 2017
Pictured: The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Miguel Harth-Bedoya at Bass Hall on New Year’s Eve. Photo by Joyce Marshall
