Barry Plaxen’s Review of Sullivan County Chamber Orchestra’s “Dances and Serenades”
September 9, 2017
Eugene D. Nesin Theatre
Monticello
It’s the dynamics, stupid!
（Below is the excerpt from the complete review.）Artistic qualities abound when the SCCO performs.  Those qualities: piano, forte, crescendo, decrescendo, ritardando, accelerando, sostenuto, etc., etc., etc., are what I mean by dynamics, and as I meant in the review title, that is what makes the SCCO excel. Or in other words, with the SCCO, it’s all about phrasing, phrasing, phrasing!
Being a chamber orchestra without a conductor enables each member to offer input to the way the music is performed.  And this 11-piece ensemble brings out all the beauty and magic inherent in the music. You cannot ask for anything more than “how” they perform. Led by concert master Eiko Kano, they are real music-makers, phrasing their way with a plethora of ubiquitous dynamics, giving us everything the three inspired, great composers would wish their music to say to us and do to us.
Kudos to Artistic Director (and double bass) Andrew Trombley and to Orchestra Manager (and violin) Akiko Hosoi who have assembled musicians from the local region and from (mostly) NYC.  We can be proud to call this orchestra “our own”. It ranks among the finest of our regional cultural icons.

指揮者なしのチェンバーオーケストラにおいては、一人ひとりのメンバーが供するインププットが演奏の在り方に与える影響は極めて大きい。
そして、この11名からなるアンサンブルは、音楽作品が脈々と受け継いでき
たあらゆる美と魔力を引き出した。
今宵の演奏について、彼らに”如何に演奏すべきか”などと問うべきではない。
コンサートマスター加野景子のリードのもとで彼らは真の音楽家であり、至る
ところで溢れ出すダイナミックスによって奏でられるフレーズは、今宵演奏さ
れた３つの作品それぞれの偉大な作曲者が私たちに問いかけ、働きかけようと
したことのすべてを代弁しているかのようであった。