Tom McGee's Blog

Two big con­certs are com­ing up this week­end. On Fri­day night I’m with the Ridge­wood (NJ) Sym­phony, in a pro­gram of Mozart’s Piano Con­certo No. 17 and Mahler’s First Sym­phony. Sun­day after­noon is The Broad­way Bach Ensem­ble, with two pieces for solo bass and orches­tra, Robert Schumann’s “Spring” Sym­phony, plus Handel’s “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” as a curtain-raiser.

Ordi­nar­ily I’d be gush­ing all over the Mahler. But I’m not, and let’s leave it at that. If you want more info on that, you can check the orchestra’s web site.

The soloist with BBE is Richard Fredrick­son, a seri­ous vir­tu­oso of the bass. Usu­ally when you hear a bass solo — for exam­ple in Mahler’s 1^st, or Lieu­tenant Kije — you hear a strug­gle. The tone can be thin and metal­lic, the tran­si­tions between notes jagged and uneven.

Close your eyes and lis­ten to Fredrick­son and you’d think you were hear­ing a ‘cello. It’s remark­able. He’s doing Giannini’s “Psalm 130″ and a con­certo by Drag­onetti, a con­tem­po­rary of Beethoven.

The BBE plays at Broad­way Pres­by­ter­ian Church, 114^th and Broad­way in New York City, 2pm on Sun­day, May 3. Admis­sion is free!