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Press and News - Aug 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August, 2003
CONTACT: MARGRIT RINDERKNECHT
(650) 941-5291
With its 90-plus member orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony is a true treasure of first-class symphonic sound being offered locally at three venues- the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, and the Flint Center in Cupertino. It is the perfect fit for the busy lives of people on the Peninsula. An area known for emphasizing ?mind-body-spirit? can well appreciate "mind-body-music"!
The Peninsula Symphony, under Maestro Mitchell Sardou Klein, enters its 55th Season with four distinctively different concerts:
The Opening Concert offers three incomparable, eloquent masterpieces - each the essence of its composer. Bernstein's Candide Overture, like Leonard himself, is funny, touching, brilliant and wry. Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto features the Bay Area's premier pianist, Jon Nakamatsu - the perfect interpreter of this "sweep of romantic fervor"- a pianist of magnificent technique and great expressive depth who beautifully interprets Rachmaninoff's life journey of melancholy, rhapsodic joy, nostalgia and triumph. Nakamatsu, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist in 1997, astounded the world as a virtual unknown and became a popular hero overnight and in demand as a soloist world-wide. Completing the program is Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 which chronicles Brahms' 20-year struggle to complete a masterpiece worthy of his mantle as successor to Beethoven. Beginning wit the dark, stormy, heart-pounding timpani, the symphony evolves into soulful bliss - a perfect showcase for this 100-piece orchestra.
In Concert Two, you're invited to nestle back and enjoy the languid tones of renown jazz cabaret artist, Wesla Whitfield, and the Mike Greensill Trio. This remarkable vocalist was lauded by LA Times critic Don Heckman for her "superb jazz singing" with a "voice as pure, yet as malleable as a jazz horn." Wesla, with her husband/pianist/arranger, Mike Greensill, has performed at all the leading venues of the day from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the White House. This evening of an all-Gershwin program will explore the legacy of this great composer who moved through every level of American music, from pop song and Tin Pan Alley, to upper crust salons, and finally to opera and symphony. Selections include "Strike Up the Band Overture", "Lullaby" and the "Symphonic Picture of Porgy and Bess".
In Concert Three, you're invited to bring your passport as the Peninsula Symphony goes "Around the World in 80 Minutes"! As eloquently put by Maestro Klein: "Sometimes a piece of music perfectly captures a place and its people. In this concert we will travel the world through the musical genius of seven great composers. We validate our Railpass in Finland, with the stirring anthem-like Finlandia; ride to Vienna on the musical imagination of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss, Jr.; and sojourn in gaslight-era Paris with Offenbach. We cross the sea to a meditative, haunting respite in Ginastera's Argentine ranchland, and celebrate our own home with Ives' splashy and virtuosic Variations on America.
In this concert we will travel the world through the musical genius of seven great composers. We validate our Railpass in Finland, with the stirring anthem-like Finlandia; ride to Vienna on the musical imagination of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss, Jr.; and sojourn in gaslight-era Paris with Offenbach. We cross the sea to a meditative, haunting respite in Ginastera's Argentine ranchland, and celebrate our own home with Ives' splashy and virtuosic Variations on America. Our peregrinations take us west again, crossing the Pacific for a charming meditation on Japan through the eyes of the American master Hovhaness. And we come to the end of our journey in Tchaikovsky's passionate poem to his homeland, the Little Russian Symphony, encompassing all the vastness, emotional grandeur and triumph of this monumental landscape." Evangelina Estrada, acclaimed marimaba artist, is the featured soloist.
The Fourth, and final concert, Young Virtuoso, showcases the winner of this year's Irving M. Klein International String Competition, Eric Nowlin, an exquisitely expressive Julliard violist. All the works on this program are virtuoso pieces for a symphony - demonstrating how a composer uses the colors, sounds and techniques of a symphony to create a distinctive listening experience. From the robust Roman Carnival Overture by Berlioz to Debussy's delicate Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Concerto to the culminating piece, Elgar's mystical Enigma Variations (op. 36), the range of symphonic sound is celebrated.
In addition to its regular concert season, the Peninsula Symphony continues its dynamic collaboration with Stanford University's Symphonic Chorus (Stephen Sano, Director) with the popular Holiday Concerts in November. Puccini's Messa di Gloria and Faur'e Requiem, Op. 48, will fill the splendid Stanford Memorial Chapel.
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We are pleased to also announce the affiliation of Geoffrey Gallegos with the Peninsula Symphony who will be joining us this fall as Assistant Conductor. With extensive ties to the San Francisco music scene (SF Conservatory of Music, SF Chamber Players Orchestra, SF Concerto Orchestra, SF State Symphony Orchestra, Golden Gate Philharmonic, and the Golden Gate Opera Company), he shares the Peninsula Symphony's strong commitment to arts education and availability in the Bay Area.
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