The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will travel to North Bethesda on Sunday March 1, 2015 to perform at The Music Center at Strathmore. ASO Music Director José-Luis Novo will conduct a program that includes The Garden of Fand by Sir Arnold Bax, Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) by Richard Strauss, and the Piano Concerto in G major by Maurice Ravel with Simone Dinnerstein as soloist.
The program titled “Dinnerstein, Ravel, and A Hero’s Life” marks the ASO’s independent debut at Strathmore and is the first of four annual appearances scheduled in the acoustically superb 2,000-seat concert hall. Tickets for the 3:00PM performance are priced at $30 for adults and $10 for students, and may be purchased online at www.strathmore.org or by calling the Strathmore Ticket Office at (301) 581-5100.
This is the ASO’s second visit to the Music Center at Strathmore. The orchestra shared the bill with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in a March 2007 Maryland Day Concert. This Strathmore concert is designed to showcase the considerable talent of the orchestra from the Old Line State’s capitol city.
“I have watched and worked with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra for many years following a commitment I made in 2001 that when the Music Center opened, Strathmore would bring Maryland’s cultural treasures to audiences in the capital region,” said Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl. “I’m happy to fulfill that promise, and we now have a multi-year relationship to build audiences, acclaim, and artistry in partnership with the ASO at Strathmore.”
Ms. Dinnerstein’s appearance with the ASO follows shortly after the February 24th release of her newest Sony album, Broadway-Lafayette, which celebrates the time-honored transatlantic link between France and America. This CD includes the Ravel Concerto in G major which she will perform with the ASO at Strathmore, plus Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Philip Lasser’s The Circle and the Child: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
Deeply infused with jazz idioms and harmonies that were highly popular in Paris as well as the United States, Maurice Ravel composed the Piano Concerto in G major between 1929 and 1931. He remarked that “The most captivating part of jazz is its rich and diverting rhythm…Jazz is a very rich and vital source of inspiration for modern composers, and I am astonished that so few Americans are influenced by it.”
Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches. The Independent praises the “majestic originality of her vision” and NPR reports, “She compels the listener to follow her in a journey of discovery filled with unscheduled detours.” The New York based pianist gained an international following resulting from the remarkable success of her self-financed recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, released in 2007.
Dating from 1916, The Garden of Fand is the first piece on the ASO’s concert program. A heart condition prevented the English composer and poet Sir Arnold Bax from enlisting in World War I, so he spent the war years writing music profusely. Bax’s style blends elements of romanticism and impressionism, and his orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colorful instrumentation.
After intermission, the ASO will perform Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). This tone poem was composed in 1898 by Richard Strauss, a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Generally agreed to be autobiographical in nature, the work contains more than thirty quotations from Strauss’s earlier works. ASO Concertmaster Netanel Draiblate will be featured in an extensive solo violin part.
Support for the ASO is generously provided by Elizabeth Richebourg Rea, Baltimore/Annapolis Lexus Dealers, the Maryland State Arts Council, Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, and Friends of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra.
The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra features 70 professional musicians who perform a variety of symphonic music for audiences of all ages. Additionally, the non-profit organization provides educational programs through its partnerships with local schools, and various other community outreach efforts.
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