How to Go
What: “Reflections of France” (Classical Series) and “Camille Saint-Saëns and His Organ Symphony” (Classical Connections Series)
Where: Schuster Center, Second and Main Streets, Dayton
When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday (Classical Series); 8 p.m. Friday (Classical Connections Series)
Cost:$9-$59 (Classical Series); $9-$39 (Classical Connections Series)
Tickets/more info: Call Ticket Center Stage at 937-228-3630 or visit www.ticketcenterstage.com
FYI: A pre-concert discussion will begin at 7 p.m. in the Mead Theatre before the Thursday and Saturday performances with Rev. John Neely, associate pastor for music at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will showcase the elegance, grandeur and intricacy of French music in its aptly titled “Reflections of France” Classical Series program Thursday and Saturday at the Schuster Center.
The concert launches with “Machault mon chou” (a term of endearment in French meaning “my cabbage”) composed by Charles Peter Wuorinen, an American composer with a wide-ranging musical background particularly influenced by French works. Containing distinct 14th century harmonies, the three-movement piece, especially highlighting brass and strings, is drawn from the “Messe de Notre Dame” (“Mass of Our Lady”) and commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony. The DPO will perform Wuorinen’s composition for the first time.
Guest pianist Pascal Rogé, one of the foremost interpreters of French piano music, follows to salute Maurice Ravel, a French composer influenced by America’s Jazz Age who is perhaps best known for his ravishing “Bolero.” Rogé, who became a Decca recording artist at age 17 and whose numerous honors include two Gramophone Awards and a Grand Prix du Disque, will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, a fascinating blend of complexity, dissonance and shifts containing a slight homage to Mozart.
“Ravel is (distinguished) by his sense of musical color,” said DPO music director Neal Gittleman. “With most composers the prime parameters are melody, harmony and rhythm. But to those (elements) Ravel adds color with a brilliant sense of orchestration and timbre, which creates an extra dimension to the sound of his music.”
DPO principal pianist Joshua Nemith, who has been with the organization since the 2007-08 season and received a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, will close the concert as the featured artist rendering Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C Minor. Commonly known as the “Organ Symphony,” the work is a four-movement symphony uniquely written in two movements. The piano is scored for both two and four hands at various places.
“Saint-Saëns was, above all, a great musical craftsman,” said Gittleman. “(He had) tremendous technical skill as a composer but maybe a little short (as a) genius (or) inspiration. But the ‘Organ Symphony’ is the great exception to that. It is brilliant, especially the way he handles the orchestra and the organ. When the organ is silent, about half the piece, the orchestra either imitates the organ or does things the organ can’t. And the big powerful wall of sound we expect he cagily holds back for the very end of the symphony.”
Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” also serves as the centerpiece of the DPO’s Classical Connections concert slated Friday. Gittleman will analyze Saint-Saëns’ life and career during the first half of the concert, which opens with “Marche Militaire Francaise” from his “Suite Algérienne.” The second half will include “Organ Symphony.” A Q&A with Gittleman will immediately follow the concert.
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