Disaster, divinity at Orchestra

Wednesday's orchestra concert consisted of both the best and the worst in music. This time the featured ensemble was the Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Baldner. As usual, the quality of musicianship was excellent and spirited, although during the first piece it was quite difficult to tell if the orchestra made any mistakes because the entire piece sounded like one big mistake.\nThat piece was Symphony No. 4 by the German-born composer Lukas Foss. Foss, who was present at the concert, celebrated his 80th birthday here at IU. The program included a brief biography of Foss, who occupied some very distinguished positions at various universities and studied with legends like composer Paul Hindemith and conductor Serge Koussevitzky. It's too bad his music was almost painful to listen to. Each of the four movements of his symphony was less of a musical work than an excruciating blend of noise and tones. The first movement sounded like a machine, repeating over and over a constant barrage of staccato sounds and going nowhere with them. The second movement was an utter disaster. A lack of tonal quality and melody as well as an onslaught of random noise made this by one of the longest fifteen minutes I've ever spent at a concert. The third and fourth could boast no virtue either. Both were disjointed and atonal and led nowhere. The "fireworks" simulation in the fourth movement was only apparent after reading the description in the program. As is to be expected of such music, a horribly inflated orchestration and a profusion of percussive toys weighed upon the ears like an anvil.\nBut any musical disaster can be rectified by the other piece on the program: Beethoven's Third Symphony. The story is well-known that Beethoven originally dedicated the work to Napoleon, whom he admired. However, upon hearing that Napoleon declared himself emperor, Beethoven scratched out his name from the score, rededicated it to Prince von Lobkowitz, and simply called it the "Eroica" (heroic) symphony. This symphony is a monumental and revolutionary work, one of the milestones in music. It was the longest symphony of its day and began to usher in the highly emotional "romantic" style of composing. As with all Beethoven symphonies, not a note can be added or subtracted; it is simply perfect as it is. It flies gracefully in the first movement, mourns in the second, uplifts in the third and triumphs in the fourth. If one word could describe this piece of music, it would be breathtaking. Of course the orchestra did it justice. Special acknowledgement goes to the french horns, flutes and strings for superbly executing difficult parts. It is only a pity that not more college students enjoyed a free performance of some of the world's finest music.