LONG BAY SYMPHONY PERFORMANCES

French music has a certain je ne sais quoi, an intriguing blend of elegance, emotion and pageantry that characterizes the national style.

This program featured beloved French symphonic classics, from the energetic Romanticism of Hector Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture to the evocative tone-painting of La Mer (The Sea) by Impressionist composer Claude Debussy; the fluid sensuality of Maurice Ravel’s Scheherazade (featuring soprano Adrienne Danrich); the orchestral wizardry of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas; and the riveting drama of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Bacchanale” from the opera Samson et Dalilah.

A memorable melody is the main “take away” from listening to a piece of music, whether it’s a catchy, humorous set of tunes such as Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture or the sorrowful, intense melodic unfolding heard in the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber.

Extended compositions are often unified by recalling significant melodies heard in the beginning at the work’s conclusion, as in Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, while the manipulation of a melody into a series of Variations, as heard in the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev, (featuring pianist Ko-Eun Yi) is a favorite compositional tool to create melodic unity and variety. 

Our popular concert of macabre masterpieces featured  favorite symphonic classics inspired by the frightful and fantastical. Included are Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Camille Saent-Saëns’ Danse macabre, dramatic excerpts from the play Peer Gynt (including “Hall of the Mountain King” featuring actors from Atlantic Stage) by Edvard Grieg, Fantasy on “Faust” for Violin and Orchestra (featuring LBS Concertmaster William Terwilliger) by Pablo de Sarasate, Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, and more!

This concert featured popular symphonic masterpieces based on variations from a single melodic idea.

From the tongue-in-cheek Variations on “America” by the great American iconoclast Charles Ives to Johannes Brahms’ artful and charming Variations on a Theme of Haydn and Edward Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations, patrons followed the composer’s craft as the music unfolds.

Plus, renowned young cellist Sang-Eun Lee performed Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, an elegant essay recalling an earlier musical style.

An exploration of the Classical tradition of Mozart and Beethoven, and its enduring influence into the 20th century. Featuring Ken Olsen on Cello.