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The Arlington Philharmonic drew a nearly overflowing audience to Washington-Liberty High School on Feb. 23 for a free concert featuring Brahms, Barber and Dvořák.
Japanese violinist Akemi Takayama joined the orchestra for Samuel Barber’s demanding Violin Concerto, Op. 14. Her performance included the work’s rapid “presto in moto perpetuo” passage, which calls for continuous, high-speed playing.
The program also featured Antonín Dvořák’s “In Nature’s Realm,” a piece evoking spring despite the cold weather outside. Music Director A. Scott Ward conducted energetically and offered commentary intended to make the selections more accessible.
Ward explained that Johannes Brahms and Dvořák were contemporaries and close friends. Brahms mentored Dvořák, and the two traveled together and performed their compositions for each other to receive feedback.
After intermission, the orchestra performed Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 in D major. The program culminated in the symphony’s expansive finale, with percussion, horns and strings building into an impressive crescendo.
Children were among those filling the auditorium, highlighting how the free performance opened the concert to a broad local audience.
The Arlington Philharmonic presented the event in partnership with Encore Learning of Arlington. Support came from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arlington County cultural agencies, local businesses and a bequest from Alan Herman.