Concert Report

The New City Sinfonia concert was held in front of the UCLA Medical Center at the first church and conducted by Daniel Ratelle, Music Director’s. The audiorium included a mid-sized performance stage that included modern technology that that reflected the sound towards the audience while at the same time, blending the tones of each individual instrument. The ensemble was seated in a U-shaped, sound blending pattern with the – violas, violins, percussion, and trumpets, to the left of the stage to allow the sound of the percussionists to stick out from the rest of the band. While on the right side cellos, double basses, oboes, clarinet, flute, and French horns and more brass. The audience showed interest in the performance which depicted a variety of musicality. The cooperation between the ensemble and the conductor, along with the audience’s expression to the pieces played tied well together and completed the venue of the performance attended.

The first piece played was for Mozart, “Symphony No.31 (“Paris”)” by Léo Delibes portrayed many changes in dynamics and structure. During the beginning of the piece that described the first river, there are a few fortissimo attacks and the section in general, was very loud. The Texture was very complex; there was no obvious melody but mostly a harmonic structure displaying an aggressive feeling about the river. The second river was more peaceful and calm. That part of the piece sounded like there were many crescendos and decrescendos and tied notes. There were no obvious melodies to the second river as well. The transition between the two rivers was very quiet, the dynamics sounded like they were piano and pianissimo. Throughout the whole piece, syncopation was provided by a mixture of the snare, bass, and timpani drums along with the tubular bells. The second piece played, ”Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, in C Major” included many parts with chromatic scales and also lots of “communication” between the instruments.

The piece included a lot of snare, timpani, bass drums, chimes, and cymbals. The feeling received by the piece was very energetic at first with the exciting chromatic ties and snare bursts. Towards the middle of the piece, it got a lot calmer and had less chromatic pieces but also gave a nice feeling of serenity and comfort. Towards the end, the pace picked up again and more chromatics were added. The piece ended very suddenly and in comparison with “Two Rivers” was shorter in length. I partially enjoyed the concert. I mostly enjoyed the first piece conducted by Daniel Ratelle because the mood of the song caught of my attention with the chromatics, repetition, and sudden crescendos and decrescendos. Overall, the concert was enjoyable and it had a lot of energy in it musically. The string players had excellent bowing techniques and the winds were using great warm air, resulting in great tone quality and volume. I personally think that the one percussionist present should’ve played a bit louder when he was playing timpani because it was a bit hard to hear him.