On October 19th and 20th, North State Symphony presents “Pranksters and Legends”, a light-hearted twist on its traditional chamber music concerts with an eclectic and humorous mix of works for small ensembles.
North State Symphony concertmaster Terrie Baune and other principal chairs and musicians from the orchestra explore music from composers who were disrupters and not always content playing by the rules. The program continues our season-long celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday and also includes later composers who found inspiration from his methods.
The program begins with Carl Nielsen’s Serenata in vano (“Serenade in Vain”), a quintet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello and double-bass. “Serenata in vano is a humorous trifle,” Nielsen once wrote. He is believed to have composed it just a week before its first scheduled performance for a 2014 Danish Royal Theatre Music Society concert, prompting a reviewer in attendance to state that it was “actually an amusing effort”. Nielson’s new composition shared the stage and was written as a companion piece for Beethoven’s Septet, and our program will also honor the great master by concluding with that work. In between, we’ll have some trick-or-treat fun with Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders! (“Till Eulenspiegel – differently, for once!”), by the virtually unknown Austrian composer Franz Hasenöhrl. Hasenöhrl began with Strauss’ famous tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, which depicted the life, death and resurrection of a medieval trickster-prankster, and distilled it into 8 minutes and from a full orchestra to an ensemble of just violin, double-bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn.
Performances are Saturday, October 19th at 7:30pm at the McLaughlin Auditorium, 1805 Sequoia Street, Redding, CA (tickets at the Cascade Theatre Box Office, cascadetheatre.org, and at the door) and Sunday, October 20th at 2:00pm at the Paul and Yasuko Zingg Recital Hall, New Arts & Humanities Building, CSU Chico (tickets at the University Box Office, chicostatetickets.com, and at the door).
On an equally inspired note, North State Symphony is proud to support “Art from the Ashes – Seeds of Regrowth”, an exhibition benefitting wildfire recovery efforts. NSS will provide live chamber music, featuring Terrie Baune performing Vivaldi’s “Spring”, at the Exhibition’s Opening Ceremony in an evening of art and community beginning at 6:00pm on October 12th at the California Street Labs, Redding, California. For more information, visit artfromtheashes.org.
Generous community support for North State Symphony is provided by Season Sponsor Dignity Health. The Chamber Music Concert in Redding is sponsored by Sally Wells. In Chico, the concert is a co-production produced in partnership with Chico Performances.
North State Symphony (www.northstatesymphony.org) is a professional orchestra dedicated to achieving excellence in musical performance and educational opportunities, while engaging and shaping the cultural life of Northern California.
