The Florida Orchestra musicians will play more than 130 concerts in the 2018/19 season. That’s hundreds of works and thousands of pages of music. Which ones are they most looking forward to? As the season gets ready to launch at the end of September, we asked musicians for their concert picks. Here are four handpicked by Harold Van Schaik, bass trombone.
Click on each title for more information.
Respighi’s Pines of Rome
(On Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 concert Sept. 28-30)
This is a work I always look forward to. Not only because of the great brass and low brass writing, but because it was one of the first “big” pieces I got to play as a substitute in the Chicago Symphony back when I was in school. Makes me recall sitting with my teachers in perhaps the greatest orchestral brass section ever assembled. Unforgettable moment in time for me.
Evening at Bach’s Coffeehouse
(Oct. 26-28)
I’m looking forward to this one mainly because I won’t be playing! Instead my brass section colleagues and I will be doing special ensemble concerts around the area (stay tuned for details!). Very rarely do we get to play brass ensemble music on a professional level. A rare treat indeed.
Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony
(Nov 16-18)
While in school, I performed Vaughan Williams’ tuba concerto (on bass trombone) for a concerto competition (came in 3rd) and grew to like his music. In general, I feel his compositions need to be played more often in this country. A very fine composer.
Schubert’s Symphony No. 9
(Jan 18-20)
This is the one I’m most looking forward to for purely selfish reasons. Schubert uses the trombone section more and better in this work than just about any other work in the literature. I’m very much looking forward to playing it with my new trombone section colleagues, Principal Trombone Joel Vaisse and Assistant Principal Trombone Ross Holcombe.
