Flag Day
was the right time to hear Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream
of America, a multimedia work in which music, actors and projected
photos combine to distill the immigrant experience. Glenn Quader led
the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in a deeply moving performance whose
totality transcended its music.
The score’s virtues were revealed
with authority by conductor Glenn Quader, who led the performance. With
its shifting meters and moods, [Christopher Theofanidis’] Rainbow
Body isn’t easy to bring off. Yet Quader brought out the luminous
sonorities that have made the piece so irresistible in its brief history.
Quader nailed the natural ebbs and flows
of the piece [Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol], effectively leading
his group through the rousing dance theme and pulling from the ensemble
a performance that rose above mere note-playing. Furthermore, movement
endings were crisp and punctuated; such effects cannot be achieved without
strong and precise conducting. The performance possessed a strong sense
of livelihood from the well articulated beginning to the whirlwind coda,
over which Quader exercised firm control, never once losing the ensemble
to overdone dynamics or a runaway tempo.
The orchestra, (under newly appointed Associate
Conductor Glenn Quader) sounded robust and secure.
The evening began with Joan
Tower’s Made
in America; led by conductor Glenn Quader, The FSO gave it a focused
and emotive performance.