Symphony soiree brings fresh sounds to fresh air
Arbor Crest concert features piece by violinist Armstrong
The Spokane Symphony’s Soiree on the Edge offers a refreshing change of pace from traditional orchestral concerts. The annual event is held at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars, with the orchestra overlooking the city and performing until the sun goes down.
“The concerts at Arbor Crest are performances I look forward to all summer long,” Spokane Symphony conductor Eckart Preu said in an email. “The location is just perfect for a magical evening of music.”
The programs tend to be divided into halves, which Preu respectively refers to as the known and the unknown: Pieces by classical composers George Frideric Handel and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach bookend the concert, and works from modern composers like Philip Glass and Narong Prangcharoen appear in between.
“In the first half, we will explore music by mostly living composers,” Preu said, “music that is fresh, entertaining and will open our minds and ears to the future of classical music. … The second part of the evening is usually dedicated to one of the blockbusters of the major repertoire.”
One of the newer compositions featured in this upcoming program is titled “Balkan,” and it was written by and features a solo from Spokane Symphony violinist David Armstrong. “Balkan” is a reworking of a similarly titled piece by Finnish composer Matti Makela, and Armstrong says he was drawn to it because it doesn’t follow typical folk music conventions.
“It has a lot of unusual things we don’t really see in traditional classical music or a lot of western music, with unusual beat patterns and complex meters,” Armstrong said. “It has a rhythmic momentum that’s really interesting.”
The piece was originally arranged for a string quartet – it was performed that way a couple of years ago – and Armstrong updated it to accommodate a full orchestra.
“When planning the current arrangement, I basically took the string quartet parts and wrote them out for the full string orchestra,” he said. “It’s adding the bass part to it, dividing some of the parts out, filling out the harmonies a bit and changing some things around here and there.”
Armstrong, who has been with the Spokane Symphony for six years, shares Preu’s enthusiasm for the Arbor Crest soirees. They provide not only a change in scenery, he says, but a change in attitude.
“I really like the laid-back atmosphere of it,” Armstrong said. “Being able to play a concert outdoors is a nice change from playing in a concert hall, and the location is absolutely beautiful.”