Saturday night June 28, I went to the inaugural concert of the Freisinger Chamber Orchestra at the First Church on Marlborough St. in Boston featuring their concertmaster, Cambridge resident Arie Yaacobi. The program included two world premier performances. The Siren Etude for String Orchestra by Brazilian composer Luiz Casteloes, and Instinct by American Anthony Green.

The show began with Barber’s Adagio for Strings, which like a lot of modern classical music, failed to hook me. Next came Casteloes’ Siren Etude. Inspired by the two tone sound of emergency vehicles in urban Brazil, it weaves together a piece suggesting the urgency of the modern world. This one caught me. Ending the first half of the program was Summer from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This orchestra’s performance and Mr. Yaacobi’s violin in particular rescued this piece from the easy listening wasteland that it has been tossed into by inclusion in all those collections of “Classical Masterpieces” advertised on late night television. The juxtaposition of a very urban sound followed by this pastoral scene was inspired. Nobody was leaving after the first half.

Conductor Peter Freisinger opened the second half with two improvisations on piano.
The first was based on the tango, and as an added challenge, he asked the audience to pick the key. “F sharp” someone shouted, followed by “minor” from another. Then he was off. A rich tangoish sound surrounded us. The rhythm was right and the musical meanderings, while reaching into the classical tradition and capabilities of the concert grand never left you wondering what he was playing at. Then he did a blues based number. There was a little ragtime, a bit of Chicago, and a whole lotta fine sound. Completely absent from either, was any of that dead feeling that I usually get when classical people do jazz or blues. If I owned a bar, I would love to have him as my house band.

The next piece was Green’s “Instinct.” Mr. Green explained that this was “a piece composed mainly with the idea of the dichotomy of instinctual composing and intentionally going against my own instinct.” It is a very rhythmic piece with much plucking of strings both for melody and punctuation. Very original and creative, I look forward to hearing more from Anthony Green. The night was topped off with Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, la reine. Mr. Yaacobi’s violin and Bianca Garcia’s flute on top of the fine musicianship of the orchestra and conductor made it a treat to listen to.

If you are a follower of classical , or just like good and interesting music like me , I would recommend catching the Freisinger Chamber Orchestra if you can. Here is their URL.http://www.peterfreisinger.com/peterfreisinger.com/Home.html