Jan. 12, 2016 --
The Marine Chamber Orchestra will perform its first
concert of the 2016 season at 2 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 17, at Northern Virginia
Community College’s Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in
Alexandria. Conducted by Director Lt. Col. Jason K. Fettig, the performance,
aptly titled “Titans,” will highlight how three
titans of classical music tell the stories of other larger-than-life characters
within our world, from kings to philosophers to heroes. The concert is free and
no tickets are required. Free parking is available in the adjacent garage. A Woodwind Trio will perform pre-concert music in the
lobby beginning at 1:15 p.m.
The program will begin with George
Frederic Handel’s Overture to Music for the Royal Fireworks, a vivid soundtrack to a monarch’s
monumental 18th century fireworks display. After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed bringing an end to the War
of Austrian Succession, Great Britain’s King George II was eager to host a
grand fireworks celebration hoping to frame the resolution as a great victory
for England. The king wanted music for the entire celebration that would be no
less grand than the fireworks and Handel was the obvious choice as composer for
the work. His suite contains an overture and five dance movements and the
overture is by far the longest of the movements. The dramatic introduction
includes the traditional military side drums signaling “fire” before launching
into a joyous Allegro that highlights the competing choirs of trumpets and
horns that were central to the grand martial flare required for the royal
spectacle.
Following Handel’s Overture, the
chamber orchestra will perform Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, inspired by the
characters in Plato’s masterpiece, The
Symposium, where the fathers of philosophy gather for an imaginary
discussion, including Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Erixymachus, Agathon,
Socrates, and Alcibiades. While inspired by an ancient work, the Serenade
includes virtually all of the musical styles Bernstein would come to be known
for: beautiful, lyrical melodies; bright and sophisticated dance forms; and
jazzy rhythms and harmonies. And, although the piece is one of Bernstein’s
earliest compositions, many consider it one of his very best works. The piece
was written for solo violin and orchestra, and will feature solo violinist
Staff Sgt. Christopher Franke.
The concert will conclude in grand
fashion with Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony. Mahler told fellow composer Jean
Sibelius that “The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace
everything.” True to this ideal, almost all of Mahler’s nine symphonies are
massive in their scope, orchestration, and concept. His Symphony No. 1 in D was
no exception and was cast in five movements. Mahler subtitled the entire work Titan, claiming that the “Titan” of the
symphonic poem referred simply to “a strong heroic man, his life and
sufferings, his battles and defeat at the hands of Fate.” Like most of his
orchestral works, the original symphony was composed for an ensemble of
monumental proportions. The substantial elements of the work were creatively
distilled down to the instrumentation of a modest chamber orchestra in the
present arrangement by Klaus Simon, completed in 2006.
Complete program and program notes
Directions and parking information