Music Director, Julien Benichou, has prepared a fitting conclusion to a dynamic season of ‘Great Classics’. Concerts are scheduled for Thursday, April 22nd in Easton, MD, Saturday April 24th in Ocean View, DE, and Sunday April 25th in Ocean Pines, MD. The opening number presents the musical future. Eleventh grade student Faith Peeler, winner of the 2010 Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, will solo with the orchestra performing Cécile Chaminade’s “Concertino for Flute”, with which she won the competition. Cécile Chaminade, born in France in 1857, was successful as both a pianist and a composer. This delicate and airy “Concertino” has been called one of the most beautiful pieces for flute ever written. It is rumored that Chaminade composed this as a gift to a flutist with whom she was in love. Unfortunately he did not feel the same and married someone else, but this lovely piece of music remains today as her most popular composition. The opportunity to solo with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in the season finale was one of Peeler’s awards. This talented young woman has been studying flute for seven years and not surprisingly has won other competitions as well. This is the second year that the MSO has featured the CYSO Concerto Competition winner.
Continuing to feature the wind instruments, Maestro Benichou has programmed Mozart’s ‘Symphonie Concertante for Winds’. For the second time this season, members of the orchestra are showcased in solo performances. This time the audience is treated to oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn performing as a quartet and as individual soloists. This is an opportunity to focus on the unique sound of each of these instruments and the blending with the rest of the orchestra. Especially interesting is the final movement with the solo oboe presenting the theme followed by ten variations featuring the solo quartet.
To conclude this concert, and the season, we hear Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #5 in E minor. Although there was quite a bit of criticism when the Fifth was originally presented both in Europe and the United States, it has prevailed. There is much that is familiar about this symphony. It was used as the basis for a ballet “Les Présages”. Various passages, bits and pieces, have been heard in several motion pictures from the 30’s through the 80’s. Part of the soothing, lyrical second movement was given English lyrics under the title “Moon Love” and recorded by Glenn Miller and Chet Baker among others. Every member of the orchestra rises to the occasion, guiding us through the central melody, rising and falling, loud now soft, to the triumphant finish. This is a ‘not to be missed’ performance. And so the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s 13th season comes to a triumphant conclusion.
Don’t wait, mark your calendar now for one of these performances; Thursday April 22, at 7:30PM in Easton, MD. at the Easton Church of God, Saturday April 24 at 7:30PM at Mariner’s Bethel Church, Ocean View, DE and Sunday April 25 at 3:00PM at the Community Church in Ocean Pines, MD. There is a pre-concert talk one hour before each concert. Tickets and information may be obtained by calling 1-888-846-8600 or by visiting www.midatlanticsymphony.org.
The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, a non-profit organization, is supported by grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, Talbot County Arts Council, Worcester County Arts Council, The Sussex County Council, The Carl M. Freeman and the Joshua M. Freeman Foundations and the Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation. Also support from corporate sponsors M&T Bank and the Wilford Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. |
