Sunday, October 8, 2017

Great Music, Great Variety: Listening Links for OSU Opening Concert

The opening OSU concert features music which is exciting and varied.

You are invited to enjoy an evening of live music with special guests from Parowan.


Trevor Walker will conduct the Parowan High Band and the combined Parowan and OSU musicians.

Xun Sun will conduct OSU for the other pieces.
Parowan High Band will perform under the direction of Trevor Walker:
1. Coast Guard's March by Karl L. King: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSaox42Vgsc

2. Salvation is Created by Pavel Tchesnokov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rMeyXlxRXI

OSU will perform under the direction by Xun Sun:

3. Festival Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich
"The Festive Overture ...was given its premiere at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater on November 6, 1954, and survived its original function to take its place in the international repertory.


Dmitri Shostakovich

Although the music opens with the grandest of ceremonial fanfares, there are no solemn heroics in the piece, and of course it is not an overture to anything. It is simply a vivacious and thoroughly Russian celebratory gesture, in the bright key of A major. The exultant mood is exhibited in passages alternately grandiose, lyrical and playful, with the pomposity of the opening gesture effectively submerged under waves of high spirits whenever it recurs," from Kennedy Center notes.

Festive Overture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2yjV58NBxk  Boston Pops recording


4. Georges Bizet: L'ArlĂ©sienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2 / Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor · Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra /
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlNa9_RCNw

Geroges Bizet















Famous for the opera Carmen, this French composer also wrote this wonderful suite with it's energetic Carillion and soulful Adagietto.  OSU will perform the first of the two suites.

5. Going to the West Gate performed by China Symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6-oWp8nmLY

Orchestration by Bao Yuankai


Going to the West Gate performed by Chinese traditional instruments and an incredible bamboo flute solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wN-osf5cls














Parowan and OSU musicians join for Suite directed by Trevor Walker:

Vaughn Williams from Classic FM image


English stamp celebrates composer

6. English Folk Songs - Suite I. March (Seventeen Come Sunday) [2:53] II. Intermezzo (My Bonny Boy) [2:52] III. March (Folk Songs from Somerset) [3:00] by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), England (Orchestrated by Gordon Jacob) London Symphony Orchestra directed by Sir Adrian Boult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SFgcEx5IUw

More concert information: 
http://osucedarcity.blogspot.com/2017/09/phenomenal-festivals-season-opening.html

Monday, May 29, 2017

Music and Art for Children are a Great Combination



Music to play for children on a rainy day


Calming music:
http://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/10-best-classical-music-tracks-for-calm/



Art and music go together.  Try playing your favorite music while children create their art or while you are reading to children:



Explore famous paintings with the Metropolitan Museum: 

"Music"

Savonnerie Manufactory (Manufactory, established 1626; Manufacture Royale, established 1663 and date of this tapestry estimated about 1685.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Youthful Legacy Listening Links

The next Orchestra of Southern Utah Concert on April 6 features young soloists performing as soloists with the full symphony orchestra plus an exciting overture.  Listening in advance helps enjoyment of the concert so links are provided below:



Rossini

Overture to Barber of Seville by Rossini features lots of energetic contrasts and solo moments for flute and French horn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVfVaqGZnQ

Bugs Bunny version at the Hollywood Bowl:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYBce9Gsz7g



Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto no.2 op.18 featuring pianist Anna Fedorova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGOihjqO9w

To follow the piano solo part printed music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_VCbnqbwwA

Mozart

Mozart's Aria from opera Idomeneo featuring Anna Netrebko shows fervour of Electra when she realizes that the man she loves will marry her rival.
  • "D'Oreste, d'Ajace ho in seno i tormenti" ("I feel Orestes's and Ajax's torments in my heart"), sung by Electra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrClhT5sfA


Gershwin
Concerto in F by George Gershwin is a high energy piano showpiece with full orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy0wZHgkTRM


Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev - Violin Concerto No.1 in D major, Op. 19
first movement,  Andantino, featuring Hilary Hahn


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2RbO3a3-B8

To follow along with the violin part printed music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGle-l7htlo

Join your orchestra on April 6 for an exceptional concert.


Stay in Touch with Your Orchestra:
Website:  http://myosu.org/

Friday, February 3, 2017

Create Your Own Legacy: Jubilee 2017 Listening Links

Music, art, and science for a fun filled afternoon for all ages. Lobby displays open at 1 p.m. including the SUU Planetarium, music at 2 p.m. includes William Tell Overture complete with science experiments and a commissioned piece celebrating our beautiful scenery called "Enchanted Valley" by Mark Dal Porto. Many community partners provide hands on science, art, and music activities for all ages after the concert. $5 per adult, $5 per child. Babies free. Three cans of food for a free ticket to benefit Iron County Care and Share. Full article at http://osucedarcity.blogspot.com/2017/01/create-your-own-legacy-feb-11-childrens.html

Preview Listening Links:
William Tell Overture by Rossini


This music was the overture to Rossini's final opera and is set in the Swiss Alps complete with a cello choir bringing in the dawn, moving into a thunderstorm,  a pastorale featuring the English horn which is calling in the cows after the storm, and ending with the march of Swiss soldiers which sounds like a horse galloping.  This final theme was made famous in American culture as the theme for the Lone Ranger.  Brandon Wiggins, guest scientist, has experiments planned on stage while the orchestra plays.

Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" 
Legendary performance with Stokowski directing the Philadelphia Orchestra: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=UdJ2kMi0mJU


More recent performance so you can see the pianist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c33q87s03h4 

This is the form of a theme and variations using a Paganini melody as the basis.  The most famous variation is the 18th variation and Rachmaninoff was the guest soloist in the premiere in 1934 with the Philadelphia orchestra.  He wrote it in Switzerland.  This piece is only on the Feb. 23 evening concert in Cedar City. 

Enchanted Valley by Mark Dal Porto is a world premiere and was commissioned by the Orchestra of Southern Utah.  Valley of Enchantment is a symphonic tone poem inspired by the natural surroundings and beauty of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona (Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon, Zion National Park, Antelope Canyon, and the Grand Canyon).
The work is in 10 sections as follows (includes measure numbers): 
1. Sunrise (1 - 60) 
2. Entering the woods (61 - 82)
3. By the streams of water (83 - 166)
4. Deep in the forest (167 - 204)
5. The majesty of the canyons (205 - 356)
6. In the mountain pasture (357 - 455)
7. Thunderstorm (456 - 519)
8. Calm and reflections after the storm (520 - 607)
9. The grandeur of the mountains (608 - 749)
10. Sunset (750 - 806)
Video of performance available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nXa-LVVnVw

Afternoon of music, science and art for all ages.  Babies free

Evening performance, age 6 above with adult supervision includes the Rachmaninoff


Brandon Wiggins, Guest Scientist for both performances