New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

Classical V “Fresh Air and Fresh Sounds”

Saturday, April 14, 2012 8:00pm

Zeiterion Theatre, New Bedford, MA

Free Concert Prelude: Join Dr. David MacKenzie for an informal talk on the evening’s program at 6:45PM in the theater.

The Bach harpsichord concerto with Cienniwa was “a joyous romp.”

~The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Michael Daugherty, one of the most colorful and widely performed American composers of his generation, has been described as possessing a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.” Of Sunset Strip the composer says: “I create a musical landscape (of)… sounds and images of Sunset Strip from the 1950s through the 1990s… swank restaurants, beatnik hangouts, Rat Pack nightclubs… Mexican Restaurants, motor inns… gas stations and jazz lounges… I create a feeling of switching lanes back and forth between the present, past and future.”

Cienniwa’s performance was “charming, polished, musically profound and technically brilliant.”

~The Listening Room

Francis Poulenc’s Concert champêtre (Rustic Concerto) was a conscious attempt to turn French music away from stuffy formality and pompous affect. Poulenc wanted his music to be mysterious, whimsical, musing and witty. These characteristics abound in Concert champêtre, where Poulenc creates a robust, musical dialogue between soloist and orchestra. From the jauntiness of the first movement’s opening, through melancholic and sentimental charm of the second, to the driving, muscular energy of the finale Presto, Poulenc’s music is relentless in its search for contrast, color, and interest.

Paul Cienniwa’s harpsichord skills have been called “spot on,” “expert,” and “perfect.” He has appeared in concert at Harvard, MIT, Yale, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and with renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine. He conducts the Sine Nomine choral ensemble and serves as music director at First Church in Boston.

Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony was conceived at the same time as his Seventh, in the summer of 1812. Although far more good-humored than its towering neighbors, the imposing Seventh and the monumental Ninth, it is one of the finest examples of the tightly crafted mastery of musical form that characterized Beethoven’s later works.

Filled with joyous energy and bright, playful themes, the Eighth shows us a side of Beethoven we don’t often see. At times it is almost pastoral in character, and its many moments of humor are a touch his mentor Haydn would have appreciated. There is no weightiness or darkness at all in the Eighth; it is a delightful excursion into a realm of good-natured appreciation of life’s joys and pleasures.

Sponsored by: Whaling City Sound