Music director Carl St.Clair conducted with soprano Celena Shafer, tenor Christopher Pfund, baritone Hugh Russell, the Pacific Chorale and Southern California Children's Chorus.
ORFF: “Carmina Burana”
There was a statue of Carl (St.Clair, not Orff) in the lobby!
We went to the final concert of the Pacific Symphony summer series! :)
Music director Carl St.Clair conducted, with violinist Benjamin Beilman, dancers from the Festival Theatre Ballet, and the Huntington Beach Concert Band.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Festive Overture, Op. 96
TCHAIKOVSKY: Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35
Music director Carl St.Clair conducted with the Pacific Chorale and the CSUF Chorus. The first half of the program was changed to a memoriam to the late principal cellist, Timothy Landauer.
ELGAR: "Nimrod" from the "Enigma Variations"
TICHELI: "Rest" for Chorus and Strings
RAVEL: “L'enfant et les sortilèges” (“The Child and the Magic Spells”)
KUSC's Alan Chapman interviewed stage director Robert Neu in the pre-concert lecture. Robert also staged the Magic Flute last year. Among other things, he talked about the interesting episode of when he first staged something. There were a lot of weddings when he was 5, and he served as ring bearer on multiple occasions. He loved the weddings, and he staged a wedding between 2 toy tractors! :)
The wind section principals will be the soloists in the Mozart piece. Flutist Benjamin Smolen, Oboist Jessica Pearlman Fields, Bassoonist Rose Corrigan, Hornist Keith Popejoy.
Guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducted with pianist Juho Pohjonen.
DAUGHERTY: To the New World (World Premiere)
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23
STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra
KUSC host Alan Chapman interviewed composer Michael Daugherty and Jean-Marie Zeitouni in the pre-concert lecture. Here's what we found out about the world premiere work.
The piece is inspired by the Apollo 11 moon landing, which took place 50 years ago. Michael did a bunch of research on Neil Armstrong, and found a lot of musical connections with the astronaut. He played the euphonium, was fond of the theremin, and took a cassette recording of Dvořák's "From the New World" to the moon. So, all of these are sprinkled into the piece. A soprano sings like the theremin, and not the actual instrument is played.
The first movement "Moonrise", which starts with a video of JFK's speech and the launch of Apollo 11, depicts the anxiety of the crew with the eerie soprano. The second movement "One Small Step", which starts with Armstrong's famous quote "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", depicts joy and dancing. The third movement "Splashdown", in 11/8 beat and very fast, depicts the 25,000 miles an hour journey back to Earth.
Music director Carl St.Clair conducted with violinist Paul Huang.
BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4, “Italian”
The Friday concert was a Classical KUSC @ Pacific Symphony concert, the last of three. This is an abridged performace, just one and a half hour long, but with shared insights from hosts from KUSC. This night, early morning show host John Van Driel introduced the works. Carl, Paul, and John hung out after the concert to engage with the audience
Music director Carl St.Clair conducted the semi-staged opera with the Pacific Chorale.
PUCCINI: Madame Butterfly
In the pre-concert lecture, KUSC's Alan Chapman said that this opera has the simplest plot. He even made a unit of measure for opera story complexity, called the "Butterfly". Madame Butterfly will be 1 Butterfly. I wonder how Wagner's opera score on the butterfly scale! :)
Music director Carl St. Clair conducted with violinist Augustin Hadelich, vocalist Angel Garcia, soprano Celena Shafer, clarinetist Joseph Morris, and the Pacific Chorale.
Bernstein: PRELUDE, FUGUE AND RIFFS
Bernstein: SERENADE (AFTER PLATO’S “SYMPOSIUM”)
Bernstein: CHICHESTER PSALMS
Bernstein: SELECTIONS FROM ARIAS AND BARCAROLLES
An apprentice of Leonard Bernstein's, Carl is very passionate about "Lenny" and his works. There is probably no person better fit for a centennial concert.
Music director Carl St.Clair conducted the symphony.
Rimsky-Korsakov: “SCHEHERAZADE”
Before playing it in full, Carl gave a little preview of the piece, with snippets from each movement. He also teased the audience with a partial Super Bowl score, "7". :)
Scheherazade is the main character in "The Arabian Nights", or "One Thousand and One Nights". The once-betrayed Sultan, as his revenge to all women, took a new wife every day and killed her at dawn. To stop this, Scheherazade volunteered to become his wife, and told a story every night, leaving the punch line open for the next day. She continues this for 1,001 nights, until the Sultan finally gives up on killing her.
Carl likened this to the Netflix model, which lures the viewers into continuing to watch the next episode. :)
Guest conductor David Danzmayr conducted with pianist Gabriela Martinez.
MUSSORGSKY: Night on Bald Mountain
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 7
KUSC's Alan Chapman interviewed both guests in the pre-concert lecture.
Gabriela started piano at age 5, saying she wanted to play the Beethoven's 2nd piano concerto, and she did so next year. She once performed at a recital at Antlers, Oklahoma (where there were only 3 stores on main street), and the hall's piano were missing the highest octave! Gabriela ended up playing a Liszt piece with a lot of clunking, I presume.
David is an Austrian conductor, and said the most difficult people to work with are Austrians! :)
Because they are very emotional, and that multiplies with them being musicians. He went on describing the traits of orchestras around the world. David also talked about his experience as a student of the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He said you shouldn't judge a person by what school they went to, but by with which teacher they studied from.
