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Community Corner

Orchestral Showcase Concert Highlights DuPage Symphony as 2013 "Community Orchestra of the Year"

 

The DuPage Symphony Orchestra continues its Diamond Anniversary Season by presenting a brilliant All-Orchestral Showcase Concert on Saturday, November 16, at 8 pm, in celebration of the DSO’s recent selection by the Illinois Council of Orchestras as “2013 Community Orchestra of the Year.”  The rich and varied program highlights the warmth of the DSO strings, the virtuosity of the woodwinds, the resonance of the brass, and the power of the percussion with musical masterworks by Verdi, Beethoven, and Mussorgsky.  The concert takes place in the acoustically acclaimed Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, 171 East Chicago Avenue in Naperville, under the baton of DuPage Symphony Music Director Barbara Schubert.

 

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Giuseppe Verdi’s stirring Overture to Nabucco opens the program.  As Verdi’s first real success in the realm of opera, Nabucco tells the Biblical story of the Jewish exile in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar.  From the solemn introductory chorale by the low brass to the heartfelt quotation of “Va Pensiero,” the familiar Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves that alternates with an energetic and dramatic Allegro theme, Verdi’s Overture to Nabucco remains an audience favorite two centuries after the composer’s birth.

 

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The concert continues with Ludwig van Beethoven’s exquisitely pictorial Symphony No. 6 in F Major, known as the “Pastoral Symphony.”  With a five-movement structure that embodies the “pleasant feelings upon arriving in the countryside,” followed by a “scene by the brook” and a “merry gathering of the countryfolk” that is interrupted by a bold musical depiction of a thunderstorm, the symphony concludes with a simple shepherd’s song, a heartfelt expression of gratitude for the passing of the storm.  The overall tone of the work is gentle and comforting, with explicit musical references to bird calls, rippling waters, and other sounds of nature.

 

The evening concludes with Modest Mussorgsky’s towering Pictures at an Exhibition, transformed from the composers’ original piano solo to an evocative orchestral showpiece through the masterful orchestration of Maurice Ravel.  Written in honor of the composer’s friend Victor Hartmann, who died suddenly at the age of 39, the multi-movement suite was inspired by the Mussorgsky’s own visit to a memorial exhibition of some 400 of Hartmann’s watercolors and sketches.  The commemorative movements, each of which describes a particular Hartmann painting, are linked together by a recurring Promenade that suggests the composer himself strolling through the exhibition.  The work culminates with a monumental musical rendering of “The Great Gate of Kiev”.

 

Tickets for the DuPage Symphony Orchestra’s November 16 “Orchestra of the Year” concert are available through the DuPage Symphony website:  www.dupagesymphony.org, or by calling the North Central College Box Office at 630.637.SHOW(7469).  Balcony ticket prices are:  Adults $35;  Seniors (65+) $31;  and Students $17.  Main floor ticket prices are Adults $30;  Seniors (65+) $26;  and Students $17.

 

For more information, visit the DuPage Symphony website at www.dupagesymphony.org, or call the DSO at 630.778.1003.

 

The DuPage Symphony Orchestra

October 21, 2013, press release

–  continued  –

 

QUICK FACTS:

 

What:                  DuPage Symphony Orchestra

                  Barbara Schubert, Music Director and Conductor

                  Second Concert of the 2013-2014 Season

 

When:                  Saturday, November 16, at 8:00 p.m.

 

Where:                    Wentz Concert Hall, North Central College

                  171 East Chicago Avenue

                  Naperville, IL

 

Program:                  Giuseppe Verdi:  Overture to Nabucco

                  Ludwig van Beethoven:  Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, “Pastoral”

                  Modest Mussorgsky:  Pictures at an Exhibition (Orchestrated by Maurice Ravel)

 

Tickets:                    Adults:  $35 Balcony; $30 Main Floor

                  Seniors (65+):  $31 Balcony; $26 Main Floor

                  Students:  $17 Balcony; $12 Main Floor

 

Purchase:                  Call the North Central College Box Office:  630.637.SHOW(7469)

                  Online:  www.dupagesymphony.org

 

Information:                  Website:  www.dupagesymphony.org

                  DSO Office:  630.778.1003

 

About the DSO:     The DuPage Symphony, celebrating its 60th Anniversary Season in 2013-2014, is a 90-member ensemble of talented musicians dedicated to the mission of “Surrounding Our Community with Music.”  The DSO presents a full concert season of five subscription programs plus a family holiday concert at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville, as well as a series of Chamber Concerts in Wheaton and Lombard and numerous outreach performances throughout the county.  The DSO is wholly committed to artistic excellence at all times, and meaningful enrichment of the listening experience for its audiences.

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