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Press and News
Peninsula Symphony presents:
Holiday Celebration!
Friday, November 19, 8pm
Sunday, November 21, 1:30pm
Stanford Memorial Church
October 2010 -- Los Altos, CA
The excitement of the Peninsula Symphony’s 62nd season of “Great Works in Grand Style” continues as we celebrate the holiday season with our annual holiday concerts at Stanford Memorial Church. Both the evening and afternoon concerts include Gabrieli’s Music for Brass; Vaughan William’s The Lark Ascending featuring Scott St. John, violin; and Vaughan William’s Hodie featuring the Stanford Symphonic Chorus. Performances take place on Friday, November 19 at 8pm & Sunday, November 21 at 1:30pm at the Stanford Memorial Church. Tickets are $20 General admission.
“We always look forward to our annual Holiday Concerts at Stanford University for many reasons. Collaborating with the Stanford University Symphonic Chorus, under the superb leadership of Maestro Stephen Sano, affords our musicians and our audience an opportunity to experience the truly thrilling repertoire of musical works for large-scale chorus and orchestra,” remarks Music Director & Conductor, Mitchell Sardou Klein. “Then, too, Memorial Church at Stanford is one of the most magnificent, inspiring, and sumptuous venues anywhere. These concerts, in that place, always ring in the holiday season with a special flair and joy. We’ve been doing these collaborations for almost twenty years now, and it has truly become a seasonal tradition.”
The program opens with a series of Gabrieli brass ensemble pieces, perfectly suited to the visual grandeur and glistening acoustic warmth of Memorial Church. The Peninsula Symphony will then be joined by the brilliant violinist (and member of the esteemed St. Lawrence String Quartet), Scott St. John, for a performance of a very different kind of Vaughan Williams musical work – “The Lark Ascending,” for solo violin and orchestra. This is an early work of the composer, and in an intimate, reflective and almost Impressionistic style. Based on George Meredith’s poem of the same name about a skylark, the piece soars meditatively as it gently meanders through solo cadenzas and violin-orchestral passages of tranquil beauty.
This year’s concerts center on one of the most colorful and joyous Christmas works ever written, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Hodie (“This Day”), subtitled “A Christmas Cantata.” This was the composer’s last work for these forces, it was written in 1953-1954 for chorus, treble chorus, large orchestra, plus soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, and brings all of the composer’s energy, imagination, and consummate craftsmanship to a festive retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus. From the ringing brass fanfares that open the work, through a number of solo songs, chorales, lullabies, marches and dances telling all the traditional elements of the Nativity story, through to the final grand and glorious choral-orchestral finale, this is a magnificent and dazzling musical experience.
The Peninsula Symphony, a 90-member community orchestra led by Music Director and Conductor Mitchell Sardou Klein, celebrates its 60th anniversary of providing unique and first-class music to the Bay Area community. In addition, as part of its “Bridges to Music” outreach programs, the Symphony shares its passion for music by offering programs in schools, providing free or discounted tickets to students and their families, hosting two competitions for students, and presenting a free family concert and outdoor summer concert. This season the Orchestra performs concerts in venues from Cupertino to San Mateo. For tickets or more information visit www.peninsulasymphony.org or call (650) 941-5291.
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