Chloe Trevor
Punch Howarth
Opening the 2017-18 concert season the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Linus Lerner, will perform works by composers from Eastern Europe, Italy and America. George Enescu is a Romanian child prodigy-composer-conductor-pianist-violinist whose Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major will begin this concert. Composed in Paris in 1901, it was premiered in Bucharest. Designed upon Romanian folk songs, it ends with a vivacious climax.
Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor follows, performed by Chloe Trevor. Dedicated to the great Russian violinist David Oistrakh, the work has the traditional three movements; sonata form first movement with two cadenzas, is marked fast, a slow sustained second movement and a very fast rondo third in D major featuring an Armenian folk theme. Soloist will be Chloe Trevor a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, who has performed in Hong Kong,Latvia, Czech Republic, Prague, Brazil and various American sites.
Solis by Amanda Harberg will be heard following intermission and Chloe Trevor returns to solo in Vivaldi’s Summer from the Four Seasons. The final selection is like the icing on a cake, Antonin Dvorak’s delicious Slavonic Dances Op. 46 numbers 5-6-7-8. Befriended by Brahms who introduced Dvorak to his publisher Simrock, he starts work on his Bohemian folk dances following Brahms’ successful set of Hungarian Dances. He was paid 300 marks for the set of 8 and because of their great popularity Simrock paid 3,000 marks for eight more Op. 72.
Slavonic Dance No. 5 in a very fast mixture of Polish krakowiak, Russian gopak, Moravian skocna and Czech vitak. No. 6 in D, a moderate very rhythmic piece is a sousedska. In C minor, No. 7 is a skocna or spring dance and ends as a lively polka. The final dance, No. 8 in G minor, is a furiant in ABA form making for an exciting ending.
Concerts will be performed on Saturday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. at DesertView Performing Arts Auditorium in SaddleBrooke and in Oro Valley at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 15 at 3:00 p.m. For more information go to www.sasomusic.org.