Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 03/05/2008 06:02 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 03/05/2008 10:33 PM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
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Spring Symphony Set for March 29th and 30th in the Foothills
Music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms highlights the upcoming spring symphony concert by the Orchestra of the Mother Lode Friends of Music, under the direction of Henrik Jul Hansen. Two performances are scheduled. The first, on Saturday, March 29 at 3 pm at the Bret Harte Theatre on Highway 49 in Angels Camp, is sponsored by the Calaveras County Arts Council is the last concert of this season’s Ovations Performing Arts Series. The second....
performance takes place in Sutter Creek on Sunday, March 30, at 3 pm in the Church of the Nazarene, 14050 Ridge Road under the auspices of the Mother Lode Friends of Music.
To celebrate his tenth anniversary as head of the Mother Lode Friends of Music Orchestra, maestro Hansen has selected three masterpieces from the nineteenth-century symphonic repertory. The Egmont Overture of Ludvig van Beethoven was composed in 1810 as part of the incidental music to the prose tragedy of Goethe. The popular overture is both dramatic and noble, reflecting the life of the Count of Egmont whose beheading inspired the people of Flanders to revolt against their Spanish oppressors.
The Italian Symphony of Felix Mendelssohn is universally regarded as the favorite among the composer’s four symphonies. The symphony was inspired by Mendelssohn’s tour of Italy from 1829 to 1831 and the work, after 175 years, still succeeds in transporting the listener into the carefree, happy spirits of a Mediterranean holiday-goer. The opening movement immediately invokes the sunny and joyful Italian landscape.. The beautiful second movement recalls a religious procession that the composer witnessed in Naples and later movements incorporate Roman and Neopolitan folk dances.
Concluding the program is the great Double Concerto for violin and cello of Johannes Brahms. Composed in 1887, the work brilliantly displays the lyrical and virtuoso aspects of both instruments, while presenting themes of unusual dramatic intensity and beauty.
Performing the concerto are violinist Corina Stoian and cellist Aleandru Dumitrache. The Romanian-born Stoian made an unforgettable impression shortly after her arrival in the United States last year, performing a solo recital with pianist Ron Brickman at the Sutter Creek Theatre in February. She was then featured in the fall in a performance of all four of The Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi with the Friends of Music Orchestra. Stoian has pursued an illustrious career in her native Romania and in Germany where she was concertmaster of the Essen Chamber Orchestra. Winner of several international prizes, she has been a frequent soloist on German television and radio and her performances have been lavishly praised by the European press.
Cellist Alexandru Dumitrache was trained at the George Enescu School of Music and the Academy of Music in his native Bucharest. At age seventeen, he won the prestigious National Cello Competition of Romania and as a result was invited to perform and record with the Romanian National Broadcast Symphony. He pursued his musical studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campagne and was principal cello with the Chicago Civic Orchestra. He has performed with numerous orchestras and in musical festivals throughout Europe, working under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Sir George Solti and Pierre Boulez, among others.
Danish-born Henrik Jul Hansen studied in many of Europe’s most prestigious music conservatories, including the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since making his home in Sacramento, he leads on a regular basis several orchestras in Northern California and Nevada, including the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Merced Symphony and the Sacramento-Gold Country Chamber Orchestra.
The Mother Lode Friends of Music celebrates this year its twelfth season, having become a premier orchestral ensemble of the Mother Lode. In its programming and quality performances, the Orchestra now rivals symphony orchestras in neighboring metropolitan areas. The majority of its players reside in the foothill counties, from Placer to the north to Tuolumne in the south.
Tickets for the Saturday, March 29 performance are $25 for adults and $10 for children under 18 and can be obtained through the Calaveras County Arts Council at 22 Main Street in San Andreas, or by calling 209-754-1774, or at the door.
Tickets for the Sunday, March 30 performance in Sutter Creek are $20 for adults, and $10 for children kindergarten through 12th grade. They may be obtained at Mother Lode Music in Martell, On Purpose in Sutter Creek, Hein Co. Books in Jackson, Sue’s Coffee in Pine Grove, West Point Lumber Yard, the Calaveras County Arts Council in San Andreas, and at the door.
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