NCCO Open Rehearsal

This morning I heard an open rehearsal for this week's concerts by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, featuring violinist Glenn Dicterow as their guest concertmaster. The rehearsal began with Holst's St. Paul's Suite. The orchestra worked on the movements out of sequence & brought out the dance element in each. It was nice hearing Mr. Dicterow's warm, seamless sound in the solos. His tone remains sweet even when he's playing very high notes. He was friendly & relaxed, & he kept the mood of the rehearsal light. The 19-member ensemble is conductorless, so the musicians spend a lot of time discussing among themselves issues such as tempo, cueing & the character of the music.

Mr. Dicterow did more leading when they played Grieg's Two Nordic Melodies, & their performance sounded cohesive already. The music is beautifully song-like, & Mr. Dicterow clearly loves it. His playing had bite in the rhythmic final section, which he called a "hoedown."

The rehearsal ended with run-throughs of all 3 movements of Mozart's Divertimento in D. The orchestra's playing was at first robust & vigorous, but Mr. Dicterow thought it felt too pushed & suggested ways to make it more elegant & light. The full program also includes Brahms's Sextet for Strings, which we did not hear. The musicians clearly enjoyed playing with Mr. Dicterow, & he told us how welcoming they had been & how amazing he thought they were.

The audience lined up for coffee & donuts during the break. A school group from, I think, Antioch made up a large portion of the attendees. They were perfectly quiet & better behaved than some of the adults who freely came & went while the musicians were playing.

§ New Century Chamber Orchestra
Program 3. Dicterow Leads Brahms and Mozart
Glenn Dicterow, Guest Concertmaster

Mozart: Divertimento in D Major K. 136
Grieg: Two Nordic Melodies, Op. 63
Holst: St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29, No. 2
Brahms: Sextet for Strings No. 1 in Bb Major, Op. 18

Open Rehearsal
Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 10am, Kanbar Performing Arts Center

Berkeley
Thursday, March 5, 2015, 8pm, First Congregational Church

Palo Alto
Friday, March 6, 2015, 8pm, First United Methodist Church

San Francisco
Saturday, March 7, 2015, 8pm, Nourse Auditorium

San Rafael
Sunday, March 8, 2015, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center