Reviews

Review of The San Fernando Valley Symphony
Dated November 17, 2007

The Valley Symphony Orchestra had another very
successful event. The program included two
distinguished pieces. The nineteenth century Beethoven
Concerto in E-flat "Emperor” and “Legend" for
orchestra by the music director Maestro James Domine.
The two pieces, one from the beginning of the
nineteenth century and one from the twenty-first
century, fit each other in a very nice way. The
soloist in the Beethoven Concerto was Mr. Mark Richman
who did a very outstanding and original interpretation
of the, so to speak "Warhorse", concerto by the great
Beethoven. The entire performance in his
interpretation gave an impression of as if we were
listening to the new concerto because of the soloist's
very tasteful and many individual and personal touches
through this very famous composition. Maestro Domine
and his orchestra did a particularly outstanding job
in responding to every nuance in the personal
interpretation of Mr. Richman.

After the intermission, we were witnessing another
outstanding achievement of the orchestra and the
conductor/composer Maestro Domine.

"Legend for orchestra" is an extended piece meant to
be an accompanying music for a ballet. However, as it
often happens, ballet music is often played without
ballet dancers, so was the case at this occasion. The
extended piece definitely uses the musical language of
the twentieth century. The orchestration was
particularly appealing with the application of the
different orchestral colors. The score is very
demanding and the orchestra did a very god job in
dealing with the new, somewhat virtuoso texture.
Maetro Domine not only conducted his own piece in the
great style but also read certain literary fragments
from the "Romance of Taliesin" (recorded in Robert
Graves' book) on which the ballet is based on.

Sandro Zaninovich M.A.