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R A P I D R I V E R A R T S
performance
Great Chamber Music
in Intimate Venues
Performances and Educational Outreach
www.classicopia.org 828-505-2903
Marcia Colligan, President
Take Your Craft to
Another Level
Workshops and Core Programs
for Adults and Youth
www.stellaadler-asheville.com
(828) 254-1320
Daniel Weiser, Artistic Director, daniel@classicopia.org
The Only Professional
Acting Studio in WNC
Asheville Symphony Orchestra Presents
Valentine Delights
The Asheville Symphony Orchestra
continues its 50th season on Saturday,
February 12 at 8 p.m. The
concert will consist of works
by Mozart, Walton, Rachmaninoff,
and Prokofiev, conducted
by Music Director Daniel Meyer, with
guest pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili.
The concert will continue the
Symphony’s exploration of music
inspired by Shakespeare, starting with
William Walton’s heartfelt music from
Henry V — Passacaglia on the Death
of Falstaff
and “Touch her soft lips and
part”
— short works written for strings
as part of the soundtrack for the classic
1944 film starring Laurence Olivier.
Walton also wrote the soundtracks for
Olivier’s films of As You Like It
(1936),
Hamlet (1948) and
Richard III
(1955).
Next is the beloved Concerto No. 21
in C Major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 467
(“Elvira Madigan”) by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, which has not been played by
the Asheville Symphony in more than 15
years. The name “Elvira Madigan” became
associated with this work in the late 1960s,
when its Andante movement was used as the
soundtrack to the gorgeous Swedish film of
that name. The piece requires the soloist to
be “both virtuoso and poet.” According to
Maestro Meyer, this is Mozart at his most
sublime. Mozart wrote the concerto in 1785,
a year in which Franz Joseph Haydn told
Mozart’s father Leopold, “Before God, and
as an honest man, I tell you that your son is
the greatest composer known to me either in
person or by name.”
The “virtuoso and poet” for this
performance will be Dudana Mazmanishvili,
whose playing has been described by
Harris Goldsmith in the New York Concert
Review: “One came away not only dazzled,
but spiritually uplifted... Only a truly unique
artist could play with such a tonal personality
and vivacity of sound.” Drawn to music
at an early age, Dudana began piano lessons
with her mother, Tamar Apakidze, at the age
of three. As her mother nurtured Dudana’s
musical skills, her father, an architect,
helped instill in her a love of visual art. Her
watercolors and oil paintings have had several
public exhibitions in Georgia.
After intermission, the Symphony will
perform the romantic Vocalise, Opus 34,
No. 14, written in 1912 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
This is one of the most famous
melodies by the popular Russian pianist,
conductor and composer, who commented:
“Melody is Music is the foundation of all
music inasmuch as a perfect melody implies
and dictates its eventual harmonic form.”
Rachmaninoff originally composed the work
as a song for high voice and piano, but later
Pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili Photo: Sarah Shatz
he arranged it for symphony, and conducted
this version himself with the Philadelphia
Orchestra on a 1929 recording.
The concert will continue the Shakespeare
connection and Valentine’s Day theme
with its final work, excerpts from Sergei
Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Originally a
ballet commissioned by the Kirov Theater,
the work was adapted for orchestra by the
composer in 1935-6. Meyer says, “Prokofiev
takes you right into the heart of the drama,
from the humble, palpitating pangs of first
love to the tumult of inter-family strife. The
swordfights, the clandestine rendezvous,
and the cries of horror and joy are all clearly
delineated in this dramatic score.”
Free Presentations
On Friday, February 11 from 3 to 4:30
p.m., at the Reuter Center on the Campus
of UNC-Asheville, Music Director Daniel
Meyer will discuss the musical works and
introduce the featured soloists. Longtime
WCQS music host Chip Kaufmann will talk
about the composers’ life and times.
On Saturday, February 12 from 7 to 7:30
p.m., Meyer will present an abridged version
of his talk on the musical works, and will
introduce the soloist, in the Banquet Hall of
the Asheville Civic Center. Both events are
free of charge and open to the public.
IF
YOU
GO
BY STEVEN R. HAGEMAN
Tickets for the performance
are available through the
Symphony office or the
Asheville Civic Center box
office, and range in price from
$55 to $20 (with discounts available for
students).
Visit www.ashevillesymphony.org or call
(828) 254-7046 for more information on
this concert, or to purchase subscription
tickets for the remainder of the Symphony’s
50th anniversary season.
20 February 2011 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 14, No. 6