Monterey Symphony Opens 74th Season Ovation Oct. 19-20 2019, With Works By Berlioz, Dvořák and Featuring Violinist and Concertmaster Christina Mok The Monterey Symphony opens its 74th season Ovation on Oct. 19 and 20, 2019, with a party and concert at Sunset Center in Carmel. Monterey, CA, September 30, 2019 — The Monterey Symphony opens its 74th season Ovation on Oct.
19 and 20, 2019, with a party and concert at Sunset Center in Carmel. Celebrate the start of the 74th season with a sparkling, celestial party on the lower Terrace of the Sunset Center Saturday evening. Get in the mood for a season of Ovation with aerial artistry by Erin Jane, decadent desserts by Parker Lusseau and delicious local wines from Chalone Vineyards. Opening Night Party admission is included with all Saturday night tickets. The season opens with Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9 by Hector Berlioz, Antonín Dvořák's Romance, Op.11 for violin and orchestra, featuring Concertmaster Christina Mok, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Romance, a delightful, single-movement work, was commissioned to serve as an annual musical tradition for the Provisional Theatre Orchestra in Prague. Based on a theme from the second movement of his fifth string quartet, Romance is a lovely interplay between the violinist and the orchestra. Other iterations of the melody were presented in his later works — it was an obvious favorite of Dvořák's! Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Op.14 takes the mercurial, and often tragic, life of an artist and sets it to music. The title underlines not only the fantastic musical fireworks that take place on stage, but also a fantasy Berlioz was demonstrating. Written as an homage to unrequited love—the result of too many unanswered love letters — Berlioz uses the voices of the instruments to explain his emotions. The work travels through the artist's life, culminating in his own funeral in the wildly intense final movement. Performances will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019. There will be pre-concert lectures in the Hall of Sunset Center one hour prior to performances. As part of the Symphony’s opening weekend, there will also be a Preview Luncheon Thursday, Oct. 17 at Los Laureles Lodge in Carmel Valley, and the first Sunday Supper Club to celebrate the season opening, Sunday, Oct. 20, at Billy Quon's Sur Restaurant at the Barnyard in Carmel. The October Preview Luncheon will be held at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 17, 2019, at Los Laureles Lodge, 313 W. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley. Join the fellow Monterey Symphony fans for a Preview Luncheon at Los Laureles Lodge in Carmel Valley. Support classical music, enjoy great food and company, and enjoy