The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra led by music director James Cassidy features its own first chair players in a program of short concerti and show pieces on April 14 at NKU’s Greaves Concert Hall.
The orchestra will open the program with a quirky area premiere of Riodon Shchedrin’s Concerto for Orchestra (“Naughty Limericks”), a barn burner that opens with each instrument offering solo interjections over a jazzy solo walking bass line.
Paul Hindemith’s Concerto for Woodwinds, Harp and Orchestra brings forward woodwind principals Jennifer King, flute, Lara Saracina, oboe, Christine Todey, clarinet, Zhongwang Wang, bassoon and Anna Odell, harp, in this brief 3-movement work accompanied by five brass players and strings. Trumpeter Brian Beurkle steps up to close out the first half with Alexander Arutiunian’s virtuosic, Armenian folk-flavored Trumpet Concerto.
“Twenty-six years ago, late Music Director Jesús Lobos-Cobos annually led the Cincinnati Symphony in an evening of obscure concerti and short solo works which featured members of the orchestra,” said KSO founder and music director James Cassidy.
“The musicians affectionately referred to it as the “Gong Show,” yet I (as an audience member) appreciated getting to hear accomplished musicians, that I knew personally, get their chance to shine in front of the band. In programming the 26th season, I recalled those evenings, and offered the KSO’s own talented musicians their opportunity.”
Principal Cellist Tom Guth kicks off the second half with Erich Korngold’s pithy, 1-movement Cello Concerto in C originally written for a feature in the 1946 film Deception with Bette Davis and Claude Rains. (Spoiler alert: In the film, Davis murders the conductor (Rains) before the concerto’s premiere. Current CCM undergrad and KSO principal horn Michelle Hembree offers a musicial bon-bon with Paul Dukas’ Villanelle for French Horn and Orchestra. A noted one-hit wonder (for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), Dukas wrote his solo horn work as a demanding exam piece for the horn class of the Paris Conservatoire in 1906.
Long-time KSO concertmaster Manami White and first violinist Youjin Na will launch into a pyrotechnic duet — Navarra — by Pablo Sarasate, who was himself a virtuoso violinist of the late 19th century. The program closes with another unusual work —”Godzilla Eats Las Vegas,” by American composer Eric Whitacre. Associate conductor, principal second violinist and program annotator, Thomas Consolo takes to the podium to close out the concert with a fun, raucous and somewhat campy, bookend closer.
The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra brings its high-ranking musicians to the fore in Greaves Concert Hall for an Open Mic Night (of sorts) at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 14, at NKU, Highland Heights.
Reserved seating tickets are $19, $27, $35 (children ages 6-18 are 50% off) and are available online at kyso.org, by phone — (859) 431-6216, or at the door.
