The Miami Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 debut concert, Ocean Drive in Vienna, sponsored by Mercantil Commercebank, moved the audience with overtures, waltzes, polkas, and dances in the Viennese tradition. The amazing concert directed by Maestro Eduardo Marturet was a night full of surprises. The evening was filled with romantic waltzes that kept the audience engaged and dancing in their seats. Guests sang along to intoxicating rhythms to the accords of polkas that erupted into a diverse mix of Latin arrangements that may have inspired Strauss or Brahms to direct a conga line.
Virtuoso group Ensemble 7/4, in their Miami debut, enhanced the concert and the YES Movement Chorus delighted the audience with Shostakovich’s Waltz No 2 which resulted in an impromptu sing-along. Dashing, internationally acclaimed violinist, Daniel Andai, dubbed the “next Isaac Pearlman” added an element of elegance and sophistication to the group of talented musicians. Even the intermission was lively, thanks to the group of Venezuelan trumpeters who added so much spice it made it tough to leave the theater during the break.
The icing on the cake was child prodigy, Valeria Diaz, “rival” and student of Maestro Marturet, who conducted The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss Jr. The young talent expressed her love for the animals she introduced onto the stage during the performance, including a macaw and curious kinkajou that gracefully leapt onto the shoulders of the conductor. Ensemble 7/4 joined the orchestra to play the Pizzi-Cuban Polka by Josef Strauss & Johann Strauss Jr. with a singular arrangement by Carlos Rivera to close the evening with an unexpected twist.
Much in the style of visionary André Rieu, (with the bonus of Latin flair) Maestro Marturet is a true showman: enchanting and graceful, right down to his Cambridge accent. Ocean Drive in Vienna was truly another triumph for Maestro Eduardo Marturet, his muse, Athina and the entire Miami Symphony Orchestra.