Living Largo
A hearty "Bravo!" to Jay Louis Dref, who sang his heart out Wednesday night at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's free concert in Delaware Park. Dref, pictured above, soared through two arias, including the famous "Largo" from Handel's "Xerxes."
Here is the great tenor Jussi Bjoerling singing that Largo in case you cannot immediately call it to mind. Such beautiful music for a summer night!
Dref sounded a little nervous at first, but who would not be, faced with such a big crowd. The BPO's parks concerts traditionally feature budding musicians, young up-and-comers who are pursuing musical careers. They are a kind of baptism by fire. Dref, who studies at the Eastman School, will be giving one more free performance this summer with the orchestra -- on the lawn of UB's South Campus, near Allen Hall, at 6 p.m. July 21.
Another young artist, clarinetist Brad Whitney, is also performing at the parks concert this summer. You have one more opportunity to catch him, at the BPO's free lunchtime concert at M&T Plaza on Thursday.
There is quite a spirit at these community concerts. Emotions ran high at Delaware Park right from the start, when Maestro Paul Ferington led the orchestra in the National Anthem. We got to hear Mendelssohn's famous "Wedding March" and the fantastic finale from Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony. It was all so much fun, and on Facebook people are still talking about it.
"He has a voice from the gods," someone wrote about Dref.
"I must be the only person in the city who did not know about this concert," someone else wrote bitterly. Ha, ha!
Such fun. And to add to it, the BPO begins its Artpark season this weekend. It lasts through the month of July. Find details on the orchestra's Web site, www.bpo.org, and on the Artpark Web site, www.artpark.net .
-- Mary Kunz Goldman
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