Spokane Symphony to have a Fantastique Opening

Sep 7, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7071

SPOKANE—The Spokane Symphony launches its 2011-2012 Say WOW! Season with a Fantastique Opening under the baton of Music Director Eckart Preu at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. In addition to a performance of Berlioz’ iconic Symphonie Fantastique, the concert will feature renowned pianist Jon Kimura Parker playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

Those who would like the evening to include an edible feast may purchase tickets to the Fourth Annual Opening Night ‘Gala Fantastique’, which will be held at the Spokane Masonic Center before the Saturday performance, beginning with a champagne reception at 5 p.m. A limited number of tickets to this fundraising event for the Spokane Symphony are available and may be purchased by calling Amy Wilcox at 464-7077.

The concert will begin with Enesco’s Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1. One of two Rumanian Rhapsodies, it was completed when the composer was not yet 20 years old. Unlike most of Enesco’s music, which was heavily influenced by the popular music of France, the Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1 was inspired by the Rom (Gypsy) music of his native country. This music is all about dance, from the typical urban ‘café music fare’ to the popular rural ‘ciocalia,’ in which the musicians imitate the sounds of birds. The music is filled with vivid melodies and colorful harmonies, played at an increasingly frenetic pace as it races to its dizzying climax.

The orchestra will then perform Grieg’s Piano Concerto, one of the most popular concertos of the Romantic period. One of only two works for orchestra that Grieg completed, it was revised extensively five times, the last revision coming shortly before the composer's death. Grieg drew inspiration from Schumann’s Piano Concerto and from the music of Liszt, whom he greatly admired. Although the concerto’s themes are not ethnic Norwegian – it was written before Grieg became interested in Norway’s folk music – it still has a "Northern" mood and does incorporate the folk music of Grieg’s native Norway, especially during the final movement which breaks out in a lively Norwegian dance known as the ‘halling.’

Internationally acclaimed pianist Jon Kimura Parker will be the soloist for the Grieg Piano Concerto. Born, raised and educated in Vancouver, B.C., he received his doctorate at The Juilliard School in 1988. Parker has performed as a guest artist with the major orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, and has appeared around the world, including performances with the Tokyo Quartet and Joshua Bell. He was awarded his country’s highest honor, the Order of Canada, in 1999. Parker is Professor of Piano at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. A committed educator, he has hosted the television series “WholeNotes” about classical music, and gives recitals and lectures in remote regions of Canada as a founding member of “Piano Plus.”  Parker has also appeared on CNN and has been documented frequently on CBC, as well as on PBS’s “The Visionaries.” He has recorded for Telarc with André Previn, Yoel Levi, and Peter Schickele.

The concert will conclude with Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, a masterpiece of orchestration and the first example of a narrative symphony. Berlioz, who was both a composer and a prolific writer, believed that music and literature were inextricably connected as the quintessential expression of human imagination and emotion. Every one of his compositions is a narrative; Symphonie Fantastique tells the story of unrequited love, tied together by a theme depicting the beloved, which appears in every movement. Each movement portrays a different aspect of the story: love at first sight, a ball, a violent storm, with the thunder symbolizing and foreshadowing the disastrous denouement of the affair, the murder of the beloved in a fit of passion, and concludes with an after-death experience, in which the beloved becomes an object of scorn.

Ticket prices for either performance begin at $14 and are available in advance at the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office, located at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.spokanesymphony.org. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT.

Betty Kiemle is the underwriter for this concert.