Symphony to play Brahms and a charming song set

Apr 9, 2010

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow: 464-7074

SPOKANE— The Spokane Symphony will perform a delightful selection of music inspired by nature under the baton of guest conductor Larry Rachleff on Saturday, April  17, 2010, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April  18, 2010, at 3 p.m. at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. In addition, there will be a pre-concert lecture in the hall one hour before each concert. Sunday’s performance is also part of the Symphony YES! Series for young listeners; there will be a children’s pre-concert presentation at 2 p.m. in the North Gallery.

Now celebrating his 12th season as Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Larry Rachleff also serves as Director of Orchestras and the Walter Kris Hubert chair at RiceUniversity’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston. During his career, he has also been Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony.

“A take-charge maestro who invests everything he conducts with deep musical understanding” (Chicago Tribune), Rachleff is in constant demand as a guest conductor. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Utah Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic and Toledo Symphony among many others. Summer festival engagements include Tanglewood, Aspen, Interlochen, Brevard Music Festival, MusicAcademy of the West, Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy and the Grand Teton Music Festival. In 1993, he was selected as one of four American conductors to lead the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the mentorship of Pierre Boulez.

Internationally acclaimed soprano Susan Lorette Dunn will be guest soloist, performing Chants d'Auvergne. Dunn studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in BrisbaneAustralia, graduating with both a Bachelor of Music Degree (Vocal Performance and Teaching) and a Graduate Diploma of Music ( Opera ). She made her debut with Opera Australia performing the role of Tzietel in Fiddler On The Roof. Her Opera Queensland debut was as Frasquita in Carmen. She has performed and recorded as soloist with ABC Australia and with many of Australia’s major orchestras. Since moving to the US in 2002, she Dunn has sung concert performances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Chicago Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Dayton Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival, Connecticut’s Summer Music Festival, Interlochen Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival and the Martinu Philharmonic, CzechRepublic. Miss Dunn has premiered Australian vocal works in concert both nationally and internationally, and has recorded Australian composition for EMI/ Jade. Composers David Heuser, Betty Beath, Stephen Lalor, David Hush and Paul Keelan have written for her.

Chants d'Auvergne ("Songs from the Auvergne"), is a collection of folk songs from the Auvergne region of France arranged for soprano and orchestra by Joseph Canteloube de Malaret during the years 1923–1930. Canteloube spent 50 years of his life traveling through France to collect and preserve regional folk music, and incorporating folksong into his concert music. In his Chants d'Auvergne, he transforms the music of his native Auvergne region from simple folk melodies and ditties, in the original dialect of the Auvergne, into lush Romantic pieces. Sung in full operatic style, most of Chants d'Auvergne are preceded by a long orchestral introduction.

The concert opens with Hector Berlioz Le Corsaire Overture, Opus 21 which evokes images of swashbuckling pirates (consair) on the high seas. The music opens with a technically challenging theme for strings and woodwinds, one of the repertory’s trickiest the orchestra players, which evoke swashbuckling swords-play in a swirl of sea-spray and wind. The opening is repeated at unexpected moments several times during the piece, interspersed with a slow, breathtaking melodies punctuated with percussive chords, and finally romps to a thrilling conclusion.

Johannes Brahms wrote Symphony 2 in the summer and fall of 1877. He spent the summer in Pörtschach, an out-of-the-way village in the Austrian countryside, from where he wrote to Eduard Hanslick: “So many melodies fly about, one must be careful not to step on them.” The symphony’s sunny spirit – especially the last two movements – and relatively transparent orchestration harks back to the young Brahms of the two orchestral serenades (1856-60), and has less of the dense orchestration that permeates much of Brahms’s symphonic writing. It induced one of Brahms’ friends to exclaim: “It is all rippling streams, blue sky, sunshine and cool green shadows. How beautiful it must be at Pörtschach!”. But true to Brahms’s nature, the symphony has its darker moments.

Concertgoers can access new Interactive Program Notes, now available for each of the concerts in the Classics series on the Spokane Symphony website. These notes include audio clips from the music and a pop-up glossary of musical terms to enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the concerts. Notes for this concert can be accessed at http://www.spokanesymphony.org/notes/classics9.htm

Tickets for either performance are $22, $32, $40, and $44. Tickets are available in advance at the Box Office, located at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.spokanesymphony.org Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets. The Sunday performance of this concert is also part of Symphony YES series, with greatly reduced tickets for young people age 8-14 and the adults that accompany them. Symphony YES tickets are only available through the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office.

These concerts have been underwritten by Betty Kiemel. Symphony YES! is underwritten by STCU.

CALENDAR LISTING: revise

Bursts of Nature, Classics Concert; Guest Conductor Larry Rachleff conducts the Spokane Symphony; Susan Lorette Dunn, soprano; Saturday, April 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 18 at 3 p.m. in the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Tickets are $22 to $44; tickets are available by calling the Box Office at (509) 624-1200 or in person at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague; tickets are also available at www.spokanesymphony.org and through all TicketsWest outlets. Symphony YES tickets are only available through the Box Office or by calling 624-1200.