Tufts Symphony Orchestra puts on a night of 'Fall Romance'

It was a crisp fall evening on Thursday, Nov. 16 brought to life the Tufts Symphony Orchestra (TSO) brought it to life with its first performance of the year at the Distler Performance Hall. Entitled “Fall Romance," the group played an array of pieces all tied together within the theme of love.

TSO conductor John Page constructed the idea around Antonín Dvořák’s “Romance” (1879) for violin and orchestra, which features faculty member Sarita Uranovsky’s solo violin performance. When asked to be a part of this year’s tour, Uranovsky jumped at the opportunity to be able to play the piece.

Surrounding “Romance” are several other famous love letters, including Mahler’s “Adagietto” from Symphony No. 5 (1904) and the “Carmen Suites” (1875) from Georges Bizet, which the audience enjoyed so much that they found clapped after hearing the more well-known movements.

For Page, the decision to incorporate the lineup that the students performed on Thursday night was one of inspiration and practicality.

“Going on tour, it’s usually a good idea to bring a selection of shorter pieces rather than a big piece,” Page said.

Of course, as he said during the evening, that tour will be in Costa Rica this year. The symphony, along with Uranovsky, will bring its “Fall Romance” package to a few different performances in January. With the variety of pieces in their arsenal, the preparation for this concert as well as their upcoming tour was a little different than normal.

“Last year, our fall and spring programs each consisted of one big symphony,” sophomore clarinetist and TSO social chair Silvia Curry said. “This year, because we were working on shorter pieces, the nature of the rehearsals was different. Switching styles from something like 'Carmen' to Barber's 'School for Scandal,' (1933) or from the Turina to Mahler, requires a complete resetting of your musical mindset. Along this vein, I’d imagine that the listener was similarly required to shift gears when we transitioned pieces.”

All of this hard work comes together in one cohesive performance that is tied together by the strings of love and romance, creating over an hour of gorgeous music. What does the Symphony hope the audience was able to take home from it? That depends on who you ask.

“For me personally, [I wanted] to be able to convey the beauty and charm from this piece that I personally love,” Uranovsky said. “Even though I was struggling because it’s very difficult, my hope is that that didn’t come across at all — that I made it believable that it was effortless.”

Uranovsky noted the deceptively difficult nature of “Romance," as well as the other pieces the symphony performed Thursday night. Despite the skill and grace the performers were able to exhibit on stage, it didn’t come without hard work.

If you ask a student like Curry what they hope came of the night, you’ll probably hear something about work paying off when the audience hears it. After all of the hours they’ve put in this semester, it only makes sense that they’d want a happy crowd.

“You leave the concert hall grappling with the imprint of five distinctly different moods that I hope we were able to convey in our playing,” Curry said. “Even if there's just a particularly catchy phrase from 'Carmen' that's still rattling around in your head, it would make me happy just to know that our hours of rehearsal left any kind of impression on someone.”

The plan after its performance Thursday is to bring that same energy to Costa Rica during winter break. Page is thrilled to be able to lead his students on a tour such as this one.

“When I had first joined Tufts in 2012, they had not gone on tour for a long time,” Page said. “I told the department that I felt really strongly that we should be a touring ensemble like other major college orchestras.”

TSO currently plans on touring every other year, giving undergraduate students two chances to go on tour during their career at Tufts. The first tour Page led his students on two years ago was in Austria. Page and his faculty strongly believe in the benefits of touring in terms of sharpening performance and growing bonds within the members of the orchestra.

“The opportunity to [play] multiple times is always a bonus,” Uranovsky said. “Oftentimes, you’ll prepare for a one-off thing and then you’re done.”

While TSO enjoyed its performance Thursday night, it’s a relief for the members to know that its program isn’t quite done yet. In many ways, “Fall Romance” at Tufts was a standalone performance and a test-run of their upcoming dates in Costa Rica. Page believes that Thursday was a great starting block for what should be a great week of performing in January.

“I think it’s just a matter of polishing,” Page said. “It’s a matter of understanding the flow of the pieces, understanding the stamina involved in playing a whole concert, pacing themselves and just tightening up the whole thing... But, I have to say, I’m so proud of the group.”