There are a whole lot of good things going on at the USC Thornton School of Music.
This was made clearly evident during the USC Thornton Symphony’s “More Shooting Stars” concert Thursday night in the Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus. Lead by principal conductor Carl St. Clair, the program of the evening was USC faculty composer Frank Ticheli’s “Shooting Stars,” Jean Françaix’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major.
The USC Thornton Symphony, still musically inspired and fresh off its recent performance in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Oct. 15, had a vibrant sound and an obvious inspiration for the music.
Playing in the orchestra were also a few Cal State Long Beach music department alumni, including Grant Boyd, bassoon, and Fuchou Chiang, bass trombone.
Ticheli’s “Shooting Stars” is a fascinating piece that utilizes the various bells and whistles of the orchestra. That is to say, Ticheli’s work highlights the many sound possibilities of all the instruments.
USC wonderfully brought out all such colors during its performance of “Shooting Stars.” Ticheli himself even made an appearance afterward to congratulate the orchestra on a job well done.
Second on the program was the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with soloist Min Na Lee. Lee, a native South Korean, is a master’s student at USC.
Lee’s virtuosity of her instrument shined throughout the entire concerto. She could gracefully and fluidly slide through the slower, smooth passages just as well as she danced through the faster ones.
Such an obvious display of musical passion was nothing short of inspiring. It created that magic musical effect where listeners hear difficult passages played ever so effortlessly.
The last piece on the program was Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, nicknamed the “Titan.” For the orchestra to perform this rather titanic Mahler work, extra performers were called in to play both on-stage and off-stage. The stage looked pretty crowded. But that deterred nothing.
The result was one of the best collegiate sounds I have ever heard.
With the help of St. Clair’s passionate conducting, all the intricacies of one of Mahler’s greatest symphonies resonated in the Bovard Auditorium.
All the right things happened that night: the brass section was loud when it needed to be; the brass blended with the strings; the soloists executed their passages beautifully; and the orchestra hit all the right emotions of Mahler’s epic work.
It’s always inspiring to see an orchestra really into what it’s doing, to see a violin section sway to beautiful passages or watch woodwind players dance to their melodies.
Mahler would be proud.
