Hartford Symphony Orchestra among three orchestras returning to the stage for first time since COVID hit

Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant
·4 min read

Symphonies are back. Three Connecticut orchestras are beginning their seasons this weekend. For many concertgoers, it’ll be the first time they’ve heard a symphony since COVID hit.

Digital “spatial audio” feature, surround sound headphones and bass-boost car speakers are all wonderful, but there is no fuller, richer, grander, wholly enveloping sound than a live orchestra in an acoustically refined concert hall, blasting out a symphony.

After a year and a half of isolation, orchestra musicians are getting back together again. COVID guidelines are in force, onstage and in the audience. The Hartford Symphony’s concert Oct. 1-3 at The Bushnell is the first full indoor orchestra show the HSO has given in over 16 months, not to mention the first show the Bushnell itself has produced since COVID. Since last spring, the Hartford Symphony has been doing outdoor concerts, filmed chamber concerts and virtual special events. Now they’re back bigtime in The Bushnell, blasting out Beethoven.

While certain composers and themes — Beethoven, seventh symphonies, hope — surface in more than one of these concerts, the beauty of symphony orchestras is in their differences: how they are conducted, where they perform, how they suit their communities.

Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s back with Beethoven

The Hartford Symphony returns to The Bushnell Oct. 1-3 with fanfare: Rossini’s rousing “William Tell Overture” (which some of us still know as the theme from “The Long Ranger”); Beethoven’s jaunty Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 9; and the acrobatic “É Gol! For Orchestra and Audience Members,” which is a tribute to Brazilian soccer player Marta Vieira da Silva.

According to composer Clarice Assad in liner notes for a rendition of the piece with a different orchestra, “‘É Gol!’ is scored for full orchestra and audience members who are not passive listeners but are part of the score as active participants. Audience members will be led in and out of sections by performing sound effects, singing, performing simple body percussion movements and other interesting textures that either match or contrast with the music played by the orchestra. The work explores moments of Vieira da Silva’s life, culminating with a soccer match soundtrack finale.”

Assad herself leads the audience participation segments. hartfordsymphony.org.

New Haven Symphony takes the fifth

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, which just extended the contract of its music director Alasdair Neale through its 2023-24 season, also figures Beethoven is the best bet for a booming back-to-live season opener. This time it’s the composer’s fifth symphony, plus a new work ideal for these times: flutist/composer Valerie Coleman’s Fanfare for Uncommon Times, which had its world premiere in June. Florence Price’s 1932 composition “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America” is also on the program, as is Stravinsky’s “Violin Concerto,” with guest soloist Tai Murray, who is on the faculty at the Yale School of Music. newhavensymphony.org.

Obama set to music in Ridgefield

Barack Obama speeches are the inspiration for an orchestral song cycle having its world premiere Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening concert, in the Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School, 700 North Salem Road, Ridgefield. “A More Perfect Union” draws from six Obama speeches. It will be sung by the baritone Jorell Williams. Composer Paul Frucht is known as the composer of the Sandy Hook remembrance “Dawn.” A sneak preview of the concert was held in New York City earlier this week. ridgefieldsymphony.org.

Stay Tuned...

Other orchestras are getting into the act shortly:

  • The Waterbury Symphony, “Bravura Beethoven,” Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. at Naugatuck Community College mainstage. waterburysymphony.org.

  • The Yale Symphony Orchestra’s season opening concert, Oct. 16, is titled “Hope,” with such optimistic works as Omar Thomas’ “Of Our New Day Begun,” Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2,” Valerie Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout” and Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier Suite.” yso.yalecollege.yale.edu.

  • The Greater Bridgeport Symphony takes a different tack than “We’re back!” The GBS is turning 76 years old, so their Oct. 16 show at Bridgeport’s Klein Auditorium is “The Spirit of 76,” a dual pun marking the anniversary as well as “a celebration of American and American-inspired music,” with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 From the New World, Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 in F# minor.” gbs.org.

  • Also playing Dvořák’s ninth symphony is the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra Oct. 17 at the University of Saint Joseph’s Hoffman Auditorium in West Hartford. The opening concert is called “A New Day Dawns” and also features Takemitsu’s “Signals from Heaven, Two Antiphonal Fanfares: I. Day Signal” and Coleridge-Taylor’s “Ballade for Orchestra.” fvso.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.