Cowichan Symphony Society presents: The Victoria Symphony

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Saturday, January 17th, 2015
7:30 PM

Bernhard Gueller, conductor Duncan Regehr, Narrator

    -Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings
    -Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (complete)

The Serenade for Strings offers up its emotions unabashedly, with Tchaikovsky’s lush Romanticism enveloping the skeletal traces of Classical style.

Tchaikovsky’s plan for this music wavered between a symphony and a string quartet, until he landed on something in between: a serenade for string orchestra. The title and form of the work paid homage to Mozart, the greatest composer of Classical serenades, about whom Tchaikovsky once wrote in his diary, “Mozart I love as a musical Christ. … It is my profound conviction that Mozart is the highest, the culminating point which beauty has reached in the sphere of music.” Again he said: “I wrote the Serenade on impulse. I felt it deeply, from start to finish, and therefore I dare to believe it will not be without merit.”

Medelssohn, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

In 1825, the 16-year-old Mendelssohn stunned the musical world with his piece - theoverture A Midsummer Night's Dream. The plays of Shakespeare were a source of delight to the Mendelssohn family and Mendelssohn had become familiar with Shakespeare by reading German translations as a boy. Thus at the young age of 17, he was inspired to write a piece capturing the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s comedy. The piece, a concert overture, quickly became a popular favourite throughout Europe Mendelssohn returned to Shakespeare in 1843 at the request of Prussian King Frederick William IV an admirer of the overture, who wanted a set of incidental music for an upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Thus, Mendelssohn finished composing his new opus, the “incidental music” at the age of 33, just five years before his death. A romantic piece, Mendelssohn’s score (Which includes the overture) is renowned for its stunning instrumental effects, such as, at the beginning, the emulation on strings of scampering ‘fairy feet’.

For the King, Mendelssohn crafted 14 short pieces based on themes and moods from the overture. The complete work was first performed with the play on October 14, 1843. Mendelssohn’s new creations, such as the Song with Chorus, a lullaby for the fair queen Titania, and the famous Wedding March, written to accompany the multiple weddings at the end of the play (The best-known movement which is often played in modern wedding ceremonies.) gloriously recaptured the magical spirit. This concert is sponsored by Darren Rodney, Janice Patzwald of the Investors Group and Mike and Bonnie Mills.

http://www.cowichanpac.ca/event/victoria-symphony-orchestra