October 6, 2010
The LJS"C’s 56th Season, “Face the Music,” Opens with Mahler, Bernstein, Scriabin - and a Light Show
La Jolla, Calif. (October 6, 2010) — The La Jolla Symphony " Chorus (LJS"C) opens its 2010-2011 season -- Face the Music: Experiences for the Ears and the Eyes -- with an ear- and eye-opening concert conducted by Music Director Steven Schick on October 30-31. The colorful, multi-media program begins with Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide followed by Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus with pianist Noriko Kawai and “color organ” and video projections by video artist Ross Karre. The concert concludes with Gustav Mahler’s mighty Symphony No. 1 in D Major.
Voltaire’s eighteenth-century novel, Candide, was transformed into an operetta by Leonard Bernstein with a team of distinguished collaborators, including Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker. Though the initial run of the operetta in 1956 was not a success, the four-minute curtain-raiser became one of the most widely-played overtures of the twentieth century. Beginning with brassy fanfare and ending in a swirl of energy, the Overture to Candide is full of bright spirits and memorable tunes that mark Bernstein’s best music.
In Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (1910), Alexandre Scriabin envisioned not only a “symphony of sound” but a “symphony of color rays.” To this end, he conceived of a “color organ” that would project light of different colors on a screen behind the orchestra. Though such an instrument did not exist, and Scriabin never saw a performance of Prometheus with light, his vision will be carried out in our performance by video artist Ross Karre in a live light show inspired by the light-show artists of the late 1960s rock scene.
Musically, Prometheus may be described as a gradual crescendo moving from a quiet beginning to a climactic end when the chorus enters (singing only vowel sounds), the “color organ” generates an overpowering radiance, and the orchestra rushes to a thunderous close. Though not a concerto, Prometheus includes an important part for solo piano, performed by Scriabin specialist Noriko Kawai.
Gustav Mahler’s first symphony is one of the most impressive first symphonies ever written. Begun in late 1884, when he was only 24, it was completed in 1888 and first performed the following year in Budapest. The original form was far different from the one we know today. Mahler called it a Symphonic Poem rather than a symphony. But as he revised the work for later performances, it evolved and offered different hints about the meaning of this music. At one point, he called it the “Titan,” borrowing from the title of Jean Paul Richter’s novel about a wild young hero who feels lost in this world. Mahler also borrowed themes from his just-completed Songs of a Wayfarer, which are about his recovery from an ill-fated love affair. When Mahler finally published this symphony in 1899, he had cut it to four movements, greatly expanded the orchestration, and suppressed all mention of the Titan or other extra-musical associations.
The performances take place October 30–31, 2010 in Mandeville Auditorium at UCSD. Concert times are 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. Individual tickets are $29 general, $26 senior, and $15 student. Group discounts are available. Parking is free. A pre-concert lecture is offered one hour prior to concert times. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the LJS&C office at (858) 534-4637.
The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, San Diego’s oldest and largest community orchestra and chorus, is a non-profit musical performing group dedicated to inspiring San Diego with the joy of music. Its 110-person orchestra and 130-person chorus perform groundbreaking orchestral and choral music along with traditional favorites from the classical repertoire. During the 55th season, maestro Steven Schick shares the podium with Choral Director David Chase.
