The Quincy Symphony Orchestra will present their Pines of Rome Concert as the finale to its Creative Legacy season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18 in the QJHS Morrison Theater.
Music director Dr. Bruce Briney and the QSO will perform Mizzou alumna Stephanie Berg’s “Ravish and Mayhem.” Freelance music critic, Chuck Lavazzi said Berg’s composition was an “unabashedly cinematic and vivid piece…a delight from the opening Coplandesque fanfares and woodwind figures to the brass glissandi near the end that conjured up images of trumpeting elephants.” Ms. Berg will attend the performance.
Violinist Katie Wolfe is the featured artist on Max Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy,” a work for violin and orchestra in four movements. Bruch, a German composer, looked to Scotland for inspiration in creating a musical journey through the country. Using folk songs, he explores the landscape, weather, people and folklore of the land.
Wolfe leads an busy career as a soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, orchestral leader and adjudicator. She has performed in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, the Soviet Union, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. She joined the string faculty of the University of Iowa in 2004 as Associate Professor of Violin. Prior to teaching in Iowa, Ms. Wolfe taught violin, viola, and chamber music at Oklahoma State University. She also served as Associate Concertmaster of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Ms. Wolfe received a B.M. in violin performance from Indiana University and a M.M. in violin performance from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM). After graduation, she received the prestigious Fulbright Lecture Award to teach and perform in Bolivia.
Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1” will open the concert, and his majestic of “Pines of Rome” will close out the season. Respighi’s interest in Italian music history led him to compose “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1” in 1917. He took 17th century lute pieces and arranged them for modern orchestra.
Pines of Rome, composed in 1924, is one of Respighi’s most popular works. This tone poem presents four tableaux, which the composer depicts through suggestive melodies, rhythms and textures. In the first movement, Respighi depicts the raucous play of the children through brief melodic figures blared forth by the woodwinds and brass. The scene by a catacomb features a melody in the style of a Gregorian chant, which swells and then subsides through a series of repetitions. In the third movement, Respighi evokes the nocturnal serenity of the Janiculum, Rome’s beautiful hilltop park, in a haunting clarinet solo. Here Nightingales serenade the audience, one of the first examples of added recorded sounds to an orchestra performance. For the final movement, “Pines of the Appian Way,” Respighi employs his favorite format for closing: beginning quietly with a modest theme and slowly expanding it in an imposing crescendo. As the music unfolds, the composer adds more and more layers to the aural texture including extra brass instruments and organ to achieve achieving at last a thunderous conclusion!
The Grand Prize Drawing for the 10th Annual QSOA Raffle will be held at the conclusion of the intermission. Raffle proceeds support the many programs of the QSOA, including the youth orchestra and youth chorus, as well as the in-school symphony concerts for over 3500 students. The grand prize of $1,000 cash, second place prize of two Cape Air round trip tickets and third place prize of two QSOA season tickets will be awarded. Raffle tickets are on sale for $10 each or 12/$100, and may be purchased at the concert, in advance from any orchestra, chorus, Encore! or Symphony Board member, or by calling the Symphony office at 222-2856 or visiting the website at www.qsoa.org.
Concert tickets will be available at the door or may be purchased in advance at Quincy Hy-Vee stores, Sturhahn Jewelers or the Symphony Office at 200 N. 8th St. Tickets are $15 for seniors and $18 for other adults. Thanks in part to support from the Tracy Family Foundation, children 18 and under are admitted free to all QSO concerts. Students, faculty and staff of John Wood Community College, Quincy University, Western Illinois University, Truman State and Culver-Stockton College are admitted free by showing their school identification.
The Golden Baton Season Sponsors are the Knapheide Manufacturing Company and Blessing Health System. The concert is made possible in part by Concert Sponsor Mercantile Bank, Guest Artist Sponsor AA Dental, Media Sponsor WGEM, Music Sponsor Gardner Denver, by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Katherine Broemmel Endowment for the Arts, Paul H. and Anne B. Gardner Memorial Fund and the Unrestricted Endowment Fund through the Community Foundation of the Quincy Area.
