Octava Chamber Orchestra concert Sunday, November 5th

• Hahn, Le bal de Béatrice d’Este - This is a winds and percussion only piece, which also features not one harp, but two! It was written in 1905 about a Renaissance princess who was apparently very influential in Italy, who I had never heard of until I saw the name of this piece.
• Janáček, Suite for Strings - This is a gem for chamber orchestra - it was written wonderfully, with lush textures. One of Janáček's trademarks is this thing where he puts in tiny micro-themes- more like gestures, maybe- that pop up and sparkle throughout.
• Mozart, Symphony No. 29 - It's really nice to play Mozart with a small orchestra, because if you make Mozart big or heavy at all ever, it goes really badly and gets all ponderous and sad. It's much easier to keep it small and light if you have fewer people making sound.

I'm only in the latter two, but I'm enjoying them very much because they were both written so well for small ensembles, and they play like chamber music. Octava is big enough to need a conductor, but a lot of chamber music is not played with one, so when I say that something "plays like chamber music", what I mean is that I feel like I'm communicating directly with the other musicians, like I'm using my ears and the feeling of the music more than I would in a piece on a larger scale. It's a lovely, fun, intimate feeling. I think that a school of fish might feel the way it feels to play chamber music like this.

The concert is on Sunday, November 5th, at Maple Park Church in Lynnwood. Tickets at the door are $20 for adults and $15 for students or folks aged 65 and over, but you can get them in advance for $2 cheaper on the orchestra's website.

As always, thanks for listening!