An Invitation to Engage

by Susan Garrett

It might be said

The symphony will return to the concert hall with a season of vibrant, diverse, and timeless music presented up close and personal. Listen for old favorites from George Gershwin, Sergei Prokofiev, and Giochino Rossini. Explore new pieces from current living composers Jennifer Higdon and Alma Deutscher. Discover an original composition from orchestra principal second violin, Piotr Szewczyk. Be amazed by a demanding cello concerto from Peteris Vasks. Marvel at what some believe to be Johannes Brahms greatest masterpiece.

This is just a sampling of the captivating orchestral music CSG Music Director and Conductor, Michelle Merrill has planned for performance in two concert venues. At Wesley United Methodist Church on St. Simons Island, strings will soar and winds will flourish. In the auditorium at Brunswick High School, the Symphony will have the ability to perform with large orchestral forces. will be presented on Opening Night, September 20, at Wesley United Methodist Church. The merry overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, will be followed by “Concerto Provencal,” a sweet, sunny concerto from French composer Reynald Hahn performed by four wind soloists. Higdon’s soothing string arrangement of “Amazing Grace” written in her own voice will be followed by a melodic, harmonically rich “Serenade for Strings” from Joseph Suk. Under the tutelage of Antonin Dvorak, Suk composed this piece when he was just 18 years old.

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Stories that resonate with us are often retold through multiple art forms that reach different audiences. On Opening Night, the Symphony will be performing an overture from Rossini’s classic opera The Barber of Seville. This opera may be familiar to many of us thanks to Bugs Bunny. “The Rabbit of Seville,” a theatrical cartoon short released by Warner Brothers in 1950 is a spoof on Rossini’s famous opera. Director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese drew on The Barber of Seville for inspiration, playing six minutes of Rossini’s opera while Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd battle onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, with Bugs as the barber and Elmer as the befuddled recipient of an unwanted shave. They occasionally even sing along. The constant onscreen gags are punctuated mostly by Rossini’s famous overture, “Largo al factotum.” Not only have most of us seen it, it was voted #12 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The musical arrangements in the cartoon are noteworthy because the overture’s basic structure is kept relatively intact, with repeated passages removed and the overall piece conducted at a faster tempo to accommodate the cartoon’s standard running length. This Warner Bros classic is still a much loved cartoon and introduces audiences to the wonderful world of Rossini, and, for many, the genre of opera itself.

Introducing opera to the Looney Tunes adventures of Bugs and Elmer worked so well that Jones and Maltese did it again, using the works of Wagner, in 1957’s “What’s Opera, Doc?” Film critics, animation fans and filmmakers often hail this as the greatest Warner Bros. cartoon ever released and it tops many Top Ten lists of the greatest animated cartoons of all time. In 1992, the United States Library of Congress deemed the “What’s Opera, Doc?” to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, making it the first cartoon to receive such honors. Not bad for a wascally wabbit, eh?

Music lovers will return to Wesley on November 22, for Inspiration, a concert featuring an original composition from Piotr Szewczyk, CSG’s principal second violin, and an early symphony from Felix Mendelssohn which shows great command and assurance for one so young. The soloist for the evening will be concertmaster Aurica Duca. She will perform Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 2,” a charming work allowing the soloist to embellish, lead, and soar with the orchestra.

A Valentine’s Day program of Love and Loss will be offered for our planned return to the Brunswick High School auditorium. The opening strains of the February 14 concert might be surprising, but soon concert goers will be swept up in the “Siren Sounds Waltz.” This clever work by Deutscher transforms the ugly sounds of street life into beautiful music. Then it’s off to Catfish Row and many of the best-known songs from Gershwin’s beloved opera, Porgy and Bess, as arranged by Robert Russel Bennett. Selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet provide a fitting close to an evening of beauty, romance, struggle, and loss.

The final concert of the season, planned for April 11 at Brunswick High School, will present creative, compelling music in a program titled Light and Dark. Lili Boulanger’s “D’un matin de printemps” is an evocative 20th Century piece written with a fresh, joyful character and constant time and mood changes. Next, a quiet ethereal note opens Peteris Vasks’ deeply spiritual “Cello Concerto No. 1,” which will be performed by a guest artist. Considered one of the most famous composers from the Baltic states, Vasks grew up in Latvia, a region torn apart by violence and cruelty under Joseph Stalin. His exhilarating score gives rise to a sense of freedom and subtle protest.

Johannes Brahms’ powerful “Symphony No. 4” completes the evening with its complex mix of musical interrelations. Each melody evolves seamlessly from a theme that weaves its way through fanfares, horn calls, searching melodies in the strings, and thundering timpani. It is certain to bring the audience to its feet as the orchestra closes out the 39th season.

In the past year, concertgoers learned more than ever the importance of coming together to experience music during the Variations on a Season outdoor concerts that kept the music playing. Now the symphony is ready to invite music lovers back into the concert hall and to – ENGAGE!

The mission of The Coastal Symphony of Georgia is to engage, enrich, and inspire the community through artistically vibrant musical performances. For more information or to order season tickets, visit coastalsymphonyofgeorgia. org or call the box office at 912.634.2006.