PRESS RELEASE:
SYMPHONY CONCERT DATE: Saturday, December 8, 2012
CONCERT TIME:
Morning Dress Rehearsal 10:00 am
Pre-concert Chat 6:40 pm
Evening Concert 7:30 pm
LOCATION:
Port Angeles High School Auditorium
304 E. Park Ave, Port Angeles, Washington
TICKET PRICES:
10:00 am Dress Rehearsal: $5 Individual, $10 Family
7:30 pm Concert: Reserved seating – $30 and $20
General seating – $15 Adults / $12 Senior & Student
TICKET OUTLETS:
In Port Angeles:
Port Book and News – General Admission Seating only
104 E. First ~ 452.6367
Symphony Office – General Admission and Reserved Seating
216 C North Laurel ~ 457.5579 Email: pasymphony@olypen.com
In Sequim:
Sequim Village Glass of Carlsborg – General Admission Seating only
761 Carlsborg Road ~ 582.3098
The Good Book/Joyful Noise Music Center – General Admission Seating only
108 W. Washington ~ 683.3600
Online: portangelessymphony.org – General Admission and Reserved Seating
By Phone: Symphony Office 457.5579 – Gen. Admission and Reserved Seating
CONTACT: Port Angeles Symphony
Mark Wendeborn, Executive Director
360.457.5579 office, 360.809.3656 cell
pasymphony@olypen.com
portangelessymphony.org
Adam Stern, Music Director/Conductor
206.200.0534
adamostern@gmail.com
CHARTER BUS SERVICE FROM SEQUIM: None this season
MUSIC TO BE PERFORMED:
Along with the following music, Adam has some very special musical holiday surprises for the audience. In the tradition of opening presents at this time of year, these surprises by Adam for the audience are gift wrapped and presented during the concert! As a another special treat, we have the world premiere of a wonderful piece of music by a Seattle Composer!
Norwegian Dance No. 2
Edvard Grieg
A Ukrainian Christmas (world premiere)
Peter Vukmirovic Stevens
phone 206.226.8776
petervstevens@gmail.com
Carol of the Bells
Mikola Leontovitch (arr. Stern)
Hänsel and Gretel: Evening Prayer
Engelbert Humperdinck
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Traditional; first published 1780 (arr. Stern)
Other selections will be announced from the stage.
PROGRAM NOTES
BY Suzanne Berg
Norwegian Dance #2
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Edvard Grieg was a shy little man. He traveled as little as possible, preferring to stay near his familiar fjords and write music that breathed the spirit of Norway. Although he wrote some large works, he felt more at home when writing short dances and melodious, quiet, lyric pieces. He lived for a while in Copenhagen, and then he and his wife settled in a villa near Bergen. An attack of pleurisy left him a sick man in later years, but he still made annual concert tours to promote not only his own music but that of Norwegian composers generally. He is buried in. the wall. of a cliff over a fiord near his home. Grieg’s music is not world-shaking, but its charming tunefulness and colorful harmony have made him one of die best-loved composers.
Carol of the Bells
Mykola Leontovych(1877-1921)
Carol of the Bells is a popular Christmas carol that was composed by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. His English lyrics were entirely unrelated to the original ones created later by an American composer. The song is based on a folk chant knows in Ukrainian as “Shchedryk.” The rhythmic pattern has been arranged many times for different artists and groups, such as classical, metal, jazz, rock, and pop. The piece has also been featured in films and television shows.
The first version of the composition was composed in 1904, but it premiered in December 1916 and was introduced to Western audiences by the Ukranian National Chorus. A copyrighted English text was created by Peter Wilhousky in the 1930s, and since then it has been performed and sung worldwide during the Christmas season.
Hansel and Gretel: Evening Prayer
Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)
Hansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck. He described it as a “fairy tale opera.” The libretto was written by Humperdinck’s sister, based on the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. Humperdink composed Hansel and Gretel in Frankfurt in 1892, and it was first performed in Weimar on December 23, 1893, conducted by Richard Strauss. It has been associated with Christmas since its earliest performances, and today it is still most often performed at Christmas time. It remains an everlasting masterpiece.
Evening Prayer portrays Hansel and Gretel as hungry and lost. Their mother sent them into the woods in anger after they accidentally spilled the milk — the only food their family had. Darkness fell, but before they went to sleep they said an evening prayer, asking for protection during the night.
When at night I go to sleep
Fourteen angels watch do keep,
Two my head are guarding,
Two my feet are guiding,
Two are on my right hand,
Two are on my left hand,
Two who warmly cover,
Two who o’er me hover,
Two to whom is given
To guide my steps to Heaven.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Traditional; first published 1780 (arr. Stern)
The Twelve Days of Christmas was written in England as one of the “catechism songs” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith. It is an English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on the 12 days of Christmas. The twelve days mentioned in the song start on Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas Day (Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day), or the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6).
Although the specific origins of the chant are not known, it possibly began as a Twelfth Night “memories-and-forfeits” game, in which a leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake. The player who erred had to then pay a penalty. This is how the game is offered in its earliest known printed version–in the children’s book Mirth without Mischief–published in England. One hundred years later, a collector of folktales and rhymes described playing the Twelfth Night before eating mince pies.
