September 20, 2017 | UHCL Staff
When Mercury: The Orchestra Redefined is performing, it’s a musical event that goes far beyond just a night at the symphony. If you’re in University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater on Friday Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. to hear Mercury’s Brahms’ 2nd and Mendelssohn’s 5th, you’ll share in a dynamic, passionate experience that – if they were here – would definitely resonate with the two composers.
Mercury founding member and Concertmaster Jonathan Godfrey said that the orchestra’s performance of these masters’ works will give the audience a completely different musical insight. “We perform these works from a historical perspective, using period instruments and playing at the pitch the composers would have used in their day,” he said.
“The instruments we use look physically almost the same, but since the strings were made of sheep’s gut at the time, the sound was about a half-pitch lower. And for wind instruments, a ‘natural’ trumpet had no valves. It was more like a bugle, where all changes of tone were made by the player’s embouchure.”
Oboes of the time period were made with fewer keys and more holes, like a recorder, he explained. “The advancements in instruments since then have been great, but they changed the character of the sound,” Godfrey said.
“We are modern players who are taking the tools to emulate the sounds of what happened naturally at the time of Bach. It puts the music in a completely new perspective and creates a different experience.”
The evening promises much more than just a lesson in the evolution in musical instruments. “Mercury performances are really dynamic,” Godfrey said. “The orchestra performs standing, and we reach across the ‘curtain’ from the stage to the audience so they can really feel our passion for the music.”
Bayou Theater is in UH-Clear Lake’s Bayou Building, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students at the door. To purchase tickets online, visit www.uhcl.edu/bayou-theater/events-tickets or call 281-283-2065.
