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Stage: Hot Ticket
By JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2001
2 Helps symphonies in concert
Leave it to the University of South Florida school of music to come up with a bright idea. On Wednesday, the USF Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Wiedrich, will play Robert Helps' two symphonies back to back in a concert.
Helps' Symphony No. 2 was premiered last season by the Florida Orchestra. That was a high-profile performance, generally well-received, but it will be useful to hear the work again, especially in tandem with his first symphony, which debuted in 1955.
At 72, Helps is enjoying an Indian summer of recognition for being an important figure in modern American music as both composer and pianist. A recording on the CRI label of his Symphony No. 1, along with other works, was reissued to much praise a few years ago. His expert performance of piano sonatas by Roger Sessions, with whom Helps studied composition, was released in 1998, also by CRI.
Helps, who has taught at USF since 1980, thinks there is continuity between the two symphonies. "My harmonic language has changed quite a bit, but I'm not that different a composer than I was 45 years ago," he said last year.
Part of the USF Contemporary Music Festival, the student orchestra's performance of the two Helps symphonies is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Palladium Theater. Tickets: $3 and $4. (727) 822-3590.
- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic
'Morning, Noon and Night'
Spalding Gray is perhaps best known for autobiographical solo pieces such as Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box, both made into movies. He plumbs his psyche again in his latest monologue, Morning, Noon and Night, which is about being a husband and father of three, at Ferguson Hall of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $19.50-$29.50. (813) 229-7827 or (800) 955-1045.
- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic
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