Zuill Bailey, professor of cello at the University of El Paso, brought his 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello for a Phoenix Symphony Orchestra concert. Antonin Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor, Opus 104 opens with an evocative clarinet theme that finds the cello harmonizing with sighing emotion. In the second movement the cello echoes themes initiated by the woodwinds. Near the end of the third movement there is a duet between the cellist and first violin, Steven Moeckel. Our prime seats in the sixth row centered on the cello which allowed us to engage in the heartfelt emotion of the soloist while closely observing his technical mastery.
The Saturday evening concert started with three of the six tone poems that make up Bedřich Smetana’s My Fatherland (Má Vlast). Vysehrad musically paints a picture of a Czech castle. Vltava, more commonly known as The Moldau, evokes the course of a river from its source through the Bohemian plain and the city of Prague until emptying into the Elbe. Sárka follows the revenge of an Amazon jilted in love. It is hard to believe this work was completed while the composer was deaf.
