KW Symphony’s “Live By Request”
I attended the KW Symphony’s concert “Live By Request.” It was billed as an opportunity for the audience to decide what the symphony plays. I was intrigued enough by this idea to attend.
At each stage you got to choose between 3 selections on your cell phone. Sometimes the votes were very close and sometimes they were not close at all. Typically we chose between pieces by the same composer.
It was a combination of light classics and movie music. Interspersed with the audience choices were a few pieces we didn’t have any choice about — but these pieces were uniformly delightful.
The symphony was joined by the Carousel Dance Company for a few pieces. I’ll mark these with a *.
Pieces chosen by the conductor, John Morris Russell
- Dvorak — “Carnival Overture”
- Offenbach — “Overture” from La vie parisienne*
- Glière — “Russian Sailor’s Dance” from The Red Poppy
- He pretended to give us a choice for this one and when we picked something different he said this one was chosen by the “electoral college system.”
- Bizet — “Danse bohème” from Carmen Suite No. 2
- Saint-Saëns — “Bacchanele” from Samson & Delilah*
Pieces chosen by the audience
- Saint-Saëns — “The Elephant” from The Carnival of the Animals
- Williams — “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” from The Empire Strikes Back
- Rogers & Hammerstein — The Sound of Music
- This was a medley of songs — and the audience sang along.
- Sousa — The Liberty Bell
- This march was popularized by its use as the theme for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
- Tchaikovsky — “Waltz” from Sleeping Beauty*
- The dancers pretended to fight with the other dancers who were ready to perform the other waltzes we didn’t choose.
- Williams — “End Credits” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Rota — “Love Theme” from The Godfather
- Straus, Jr. — “Pizzicato Polka”
It was an extremely enjoyable concert. Of the pieces I didn’t know my favourite was Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture.”
I previously reviewed the KW Symphony’s concert “Edwin’s Final Beethoven.”