This preview has been provided by the North Carolina Symphony.

Resident Conductor William Henry Curry will lead the North Carolina Symphony in works by master composers Johann Strauss, Jr., and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that will make for an unforgettable North Carolina Symphony Friday Favorites season finale in Friday, May 2, 2014, at noon in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh.

Scholar Richard Rodda writes, “Johann Strauss was famed throughout the world for his waltzes for many years before he decided to write his first operetta…  it was with Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”) that he created his first theatrical masterpiece.”  Of Mozart, Rodda writes, “At no time was the separation between Mozart’s personal life and his transcendent music more apparent than in the summer of 1788, when, at the age of 32, he had only three years to live. His wife was ill and his own health was beginning to fail; his six-month-old daughter died on July 29th; Don Giovanni received a disappointing reception at its Viennese premiere on May 7th… Yet, amid all these difficulties, he produced, in less than two months, the three crowning jewels of his orchestral output, the Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 and 41.”

Tickets to the Raleigh Friday Favorites Series performance on Friday, May 2, are $27.  Student tickets are $10. To purchase tickets, visit the North Carolina Symphony website at www.ncsymphony.org or call the Symphony Box Office at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.  Tickets are also available one hour prior to the concert.

In addition to stellar performances, North Carolina Symphony concertgoers can enjoy pre-concert talks, post-concert discussions, and “Meet the Artists,” which feature interactive conversations with guest artists and select orchestra members, at many Symphony events.  Prior to the Friday, May 2, concert in Raleigh, Dr. Jonathan Kramer from N.C. State University will give a talk at 11 a.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall. 

Partners for the 2013/14 Raleigh Friday Favorites Series include Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, SearStone, and The Cypress of Raleigh.

About the North Carolina Symphony

Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony gives more than 200 performances annually to adults and school children in more than 50 North Carolina counties. An entity of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the orchestra employs 66 professional musicians, under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn and Resident Conductor William Henry Curry.

Headquartered in downtown Raleigh’s spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It holds regular concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington—as well as individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year—and conducts one of the most extensive education programs of any U.S. orchestra.

May 2 Concert/Event Listings:

North Carolina Symphony
“Strauss & Mozart”
William Henry Curry, Resident Conductor
Friday, May 2, noon
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, N.C.

Overture to Don Giovanni, K.527
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   I.  Molto allegro
  II.  Andante
 III.  Menuetto: Allegretto
 IV. Allegro assai

Entry March from The Gypsy Baron
Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899)

Overture to Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss, Jr.