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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Symphony opens its 42nd season with its Fall Concert at the Soper Reese Theatre at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17.
The concert includes pieces by multiple composers and a solo performance by a local violinist.
It starts off with a performance by the LCSA Youth Orchestra, led by Conductor Sue Condit, performing “The Birthday Cantata No. 208” by J. S. Bach (Best of Bach), arranged by Jerry Brubaker. Their second selection is “The Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana, with arrangement by Richard Meyer.
The symphony begins its performance with “Radetzky March,” a well-known piece by Johann Strauss Sr (1804-1849). It was written by Strauss to commemorate the victory by Field Marshall Joseph Radetzky von Radetz at the Battle of Custoza.
When it was first played before Austrian officers, they spontaneously clapped and stamped their feet to the chorus. It soon became another unofficial Austrian national anthem – the second one composed by a member of the Strauss family. (The other unofficial anthem was the Blue Danube Waltz written by Johann Strauss Jr.) Its use in numerous promotional jingles and at major sports events makes it a recognizable piece for US audiences as well.
Franz von Suppe (1819-1895), an Austrian composer of light operas and other theater music, wrote the next selection, “The Jolly Robbers Overture,” a lively piece which should keep the audience moving.
Von Suppe studied flute and composed music as a teenager but was discouraged from a musical career by his father. He studied law to please his father, but privately pursued his musical interests, with encouragement from a distant relative, the great Italian opera composer Donizetti. After the death of his father in 1835, von Suppe moved to Vienna, and was able to carve out a successful niche as a composer for the stage by the 1840s.
Nathan Crozier then takes the stage as the violin soloist for Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Concerto for Violin in E Major.” Bach (1685-1750) is considered the most important composer of the Baroque period and the complexities of his compositional style continue to amaze musicians today.
This piece, which was written by Bach while he was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Cothen, has been described as being “full of an unconquerable joy of life.”
Following intermission, the final selection of the concert features Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Drum Roll” Symphony No 105 which takes about 30 minutes to perform. Haydn (1732-1809) is considered a leading composer of the Classical Period and has been called the “father of the symphony” and string quartet.
He composed the first well-known works in those genres and composed more than 100 symphonies over the course of his long career.
Born in Vienna, he began his career as a composer at age 16, taking pupils during the day and composing music at night. It was a poverty-stricken existence for awhile, but as his works began to attract attention, he was hired as a composer and conductor with Count Marzin.
Over time, he became more successful and his music established him as a celebrity in all of Europe. The “Drum Roll” Symphony is the next to the last of his “London Symphonies” written during the period when he lived in London.
The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main Street in Lakeport.
General admission is $25 and premium seating is $30. Symphony Association members receive a $5 discount. Tickets may be purchased at the door the day of the concert. For live concerts, the box office opens two hours before show time.
Tickets may be ordered at www.soperreesetheatre.com or by phone at 707-263-0577.
For those on a tight budget, the dress rehearsal starts at 11 a.m. for only $5, with no charge for those under 18.
Please arrive 30 minutes before show time to ensure a seat.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
We've published several poems by Washington, D.C., poet Judith Harris, who writes beautifully about her Jewish heritage. Bruno Bettelheim, writing about fairy tales, remarked on the closeness of the relationships between young children and elderly people, and this poem touches upon that. Harris's most recent book is Night Garden, from Tiger Bark Press.
Grandmother Portrait
Here's a small gray woman
in an enormous beaver coat
standing at the end of the curb
of a street in Brooklyn, her strapped heel
about to be lowered to asphalt.
I'm strolling beside her carrying a sack,
the sidewalk shaded by cranked out awnings:
butchers, bakeries, shoe repair shops
the smell of rotting eggs,
as we climb up to her sixth floor apartment
with its plastic slip-covered chairs,
the long chain for a toilet flusher,
pocks in the plaster ceiling.
She is my Romanian grandmother
who speaks little English,
but taught me to crochet,
now lost among the broken headstones
of the old gated Jewish cemetery
we passed by that day
after buying our milk and our bread.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Judith Harris, "Grandmother Portrait." Poem reprinted by permission of Judith Harris. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
