|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The emotional music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, including a solo performed on a three-century-old violin, will be the centerpiece of the Livermore-Amador Symphony’s “Romantic Masterpieces” concert next weekend.
The evening will be bookended by the symphony opening with the Tchaikovsky Polonaise from his opera “Eugene Onegin” and closing with “Symphony in D Minor” by Cesar Franck, with a rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto” in the middle by American soloist Elizabeth Pitcairn, who studied alongside LAS conductor Lara Webber in college.
Webber called the Russian composer’s Polonaise “a piece that feels like popping the cork on a great bottle of champagne … It is an exciting invitation to focus our attention on what comes next: Tchaikovsky’s remarkable Violin Concerto.”
Pitcairn, who last played with the symphony at the Bankhead 10 years ago, will be performing the concerto on her 1720 Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin. “It truly sings in Elizabeth’s sensitive and expert hands,” Webber said.
“In this performance, she and I are revisiting this concerto together for the first time in a quarter century when we performed it as students at the University of Southern California,” Webber added. “Pitcairn has a particularly rich and detailed interpretation of this exciting concerto, and she plays a remarkable instrument that carries much of music history in its DNA.”
Rounding out the concert will be the lone symphony penned by the Belgian-born French composer of the 19th century.
“The symphony is deeply, personally expressive. It is cyclical, meaning everything stems from the first theme you hear, and all the primary themes are interwoven and related to one another and return at the end of the symphony in a blaze of glory,” Webber said. “It builds into one of the most satisfying symphonic experiences you can imagine. This will be a blockbuster concert, presented with a personal touch.”
The evening next Saturday (April 12) at the Bankhead in downtown Livermore will begin with an “Inside the Music” talk by Webber from 7-7:15 p.m. before the concert takes off at 7:30 p.m. Tri-Valley middle school musicians will perform in the lobby during intermission, under the direction of Jim Hurley. Complimentary wine and sparkling cider will be offered in the post-concert reception, organizers said.
For tickets and more information, go to livermoreamadorsymphony.org.
