June | Three Centuries of Orchestra Hits
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
Our June program is one of the most interesting collections of repertoire we have ever presented. After intermission we will present excerpts of orchestral hits to illustrate the development of the orchestra from the small instrumental ensembles that Johann Sebastian Bach put together in the early 18h Century, to the massive orchestral forces assembled by Igor Stravinsky to entertain and shock the Parisian audiences before World War One at Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. Our Bremerton Symphony Chorale will accompany us at various points along this journey.
The first half of our program was not conceived as a chronological journey and yet contains music from three different centuries.
We open with Zadok the Priest, the coronation anthem that has been sung for the investiture of every British monarch since it was written in 1727 for King George the Second. From the 19th Century, we feature the ladies of our chorale in the dramatic Witches Chorus from Verdi’s opera Macbeth of 1847.
To give our chorale a rest, the orchestra will carry on with one of the thorniest, thickest, and most tantalizingly seductive passages in all of music with Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils by Richard Strauss. As Salome performs her erotic dance, she slowly drops each veil until she has not a stitch of clothing left. And who is she trying to seduce … her father King Herod. (Play by Oscar Wilde based on the Bible. See Matthew 14:3-11 and Mark 6:17-28) No, we will not be pairing with Peninsula Dance Theater for this particular scene.
The Chorale will rejoin us for the lyrical and then rousing Polovetsian Dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor.
Igor has been captured by the Great Khan, leader of a strong nomadic tribe from the East. However, he is held in great esteem by the Khan and recognized as a valiant prince and warrior. In his honor, a great feast is assembled at which the Khan’s slaves sing nostalgic melodies from their homeland and the Khan’s tribesmen sing a massive tribute to their leader’s power and glory. Alexander Borodin’s melodies are so beloved that they were used to create the 1953 Broadway hit musical Kismet.
How many times have you been to the symphony or the opera, listening and sitting for long, interminable minutes until the orchestra finally gets to the grand climax or the great tune that you have been waiting all evening to finally hear. We have now solved this problem for you. In our musicological second-half journey, we will perform the greatest two minutes from a selection of the biggest orchestral hits of three centuries. Most of these works need no introduction. A mere listing should be enough to whet your appetite.
Bach: Opening of the Christmas Oratorio
Haydn: Symphony #104 (his last)
Mozart: Requiem, Lacrimosa
Beethoven: Symphony #9, the thrilling chorale entrance
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, March to the Scaffold
Brahms: Symphony #1
The Nationalists:
Tchaikovsky: Fifth Symphony
Dvorak: New World Symphony
Sibelius: Second Symphony
The end of the symphonic line:
Mahler: Sixth Symphony
Other branches:
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Stravinsky: Firebird, Infernal Dance (of the evil Kastchei and his Monsters)
Beethoven: Ninth Symphony, grand finale
Sunday, June 7th • 3:00 PM
Central Kitsap Performing Arts Center
10140 Frontier Place NW, Silverdale, WA 98383
