Porgy & Bess - Rapid River Magazine
Porgy & Bess - Rapid River Magazine
Porgy & Bess - Rapid River Magazine
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R A P I D R I V E R A R T S<br />
performance<br />
The Asheville Symphony<br />
Orchestra<br />
will continue its 49th<br />
season of Masterworks<br />
concerts on Saturday,<br />
March 13 at Thomas Wolfe<br />
Auditorium in downtown<br />
Asheville. Music Director<br />
Daniel Meyer will conduct<br />
works of Ives, Mozart, Bartók<br />
and Brahms, with violinist<br />
Caroline Goulding, from the<br />
Cleveland Institute of Music,<br />
as featured solo artist.<br />
Meyer describes the opening<br />
piece, Three Places in New<br />
England<br />
by Charles Ives, as a<br />
“profoundly original score”.<br />
Asheville Symphony presents<br />
Written in 1914, the three-movement work<br />
is subtitled a New England Symphony. Each<br />
movement reflects a site that held particular<br />
significance for the composer. For example,<br />
the first movement is inspired by Augustus<br />
St. Gaudens’ sculpture of Colonel Robert<br />
Shaw, a leader in the Massachusetts Volun-<br />
teer Infantry; the monumental bronze relief<br />
can still be seen in the Boston Common.<br />
Only 17 years old, Goulding<br />
is an audience favorite<br />
wherever she plays.<br />
Next on the program is the lovely Vio-<br />
lin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218<br />
by<br />
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The composer<br />
was 19 years old in 1775 when he wrote all<br />
five of his violin concertos. In addition to<br />
his prodigious keyboard skills, Mozart was a<br />
fine violinist, and when he played this piece<br />
in Augsburg, he told his father in a letter<br />
that the performance “went like oil. Everyone<br />
praised my beautiful pure tone.” All<br />
three movements include cadenzas, to allow<br />
the soloist to display his or her virtuosity.<br />
Caroline Goulding is the latest solo<br />
player to work with the Asheville Sym-<br />
phony in its annual collaboration with the<br />
Cleveland Institute of Music, one of the<br />
world’s leading music schools. Only 17<br />
years old, Goulding is an audience favorite<br />
wherever she plays. Her recent debut<br />
recording on the Telarc label received a<br />
Grammy nomination for “Best Solo Instrumentalist<br />
(without orchestra)” along with<br />
rave reviews.<br />
Famed violinist Jaime Laredo exalted,<br />
“This is an amazing CD! …Caroline<br />
Goulding is one of the most gifted and<br />
musically interesting violinists I have heard<br />
in a long time; her playing is heartfelt and<br />
dazzling throughout.”<br />
Goulding has appeared recently on<br />
“Folk Fusions”<br />
Caroline Goulding,<br />
violinist.<br />
BY STEVEN R. HAGEMAN<br />
NBC’s “Today,” National<br />
Public Radio’s “From the<br />
Top,” PBS’s “From the Top:<br />
Live from Carnegie Hall,”<br />
CosmoGirl Online and the<br />
“Martha Show,” hosted by<br />
Martha Stewart.<br />
Béla Bartók wrote his<br />
short piece Rumanian Folk<br />
Dances<br />
for solo piano in 1915,<br />
and orchestrated it in 1917.<br />
It consists of seven dances,<br />
played without pause. The<br />
composer was famous for<br />
notating and recording folk<br />
music of his native Hungary, and basing<br />
his compositions on this music; this piece<br />
was one of his forays into the local music<br />
of neighboring countries.<br />
The concert will conclude with the<br />
Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Opus 16<br />
by Johannes<br />
Brahms, a piece which is unique in<br />
that it features the violas, cellos, basses, and<br />
woodwinds of the orchestra, but no violins,<br />
giving it what Maestro Meyer calls “a<br />
distinct sound palate, filled with invention,<br />
melody, and sensuous harmony as only<br />
Brahms can provide.” The composer commented<br />
to his friend, Joseph Joachim: “It<br />
gave me extreme pleasure. I have seldom<br />
written music with greater delight.”<br />
Lectures<br />
Two lectures will be offered for those<br />
who enjoy having extra exposure to the<br />
music and its background. On Friday,<br />
March 12 from 3 to 4:30 p.m., at the<br />
Reuter Center on the Campus of UNC-<br />
Asheville, an introductory speaker will talk<br />
about the lives and times of the composers,<br />
and Music Director Daniel Meyer will<br />
discuss the musical works and introduce<br />
the featured soloist.<br />
On Saturday, March 13 from 7 to<br />
7:30 p.m., Maestro Meyer will present an<br />
abridged version of his presentation on<br />
the musical works, and will introduce the<br />
soloist, in the Banquet Hall of the Asheville<br />
Civic Center. Both events are free of<br />
charge and open to the public.<br />
IF<br />
YOU<br />
GO:<br />
Tickets are available through<br />
the Symphony office or the<br />
Asheville Civic Center box<br />
office, and range in price from<br />
$53 to $19 (with discounts available<br />
for students). Subscriptions are available at a<br />
substantial discount for 3 or more concerts.<br />
Visit www.ashevillesymphony.org or call<br />
(828) 254-7046 for more information.<br />
Vol. 13, No. 7 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — March 2010 7