This preview provided by North Carolina Symphony.
The North Carolina Symphony (NCS) will perform a special one-night-only Summer in the City concert at downtown Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall on Friday, June 2, led by Associate Conductor David Glover. The Symphony will welcome violinist Elena Urioste as soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, one of the most recognizable works in the classical music repertoire. Urioste has been hailed by The Washington Post as a musician who “plays with equal parts passion, sensuality, brains, and humor.”
Vivaldi’s famous set of four violin concertos translates each of the four seasons into colorful, imaginative music. The work was published together with Italian sonnets by an unknown author, and the music relates directly to the text of the poems—a barking dog represented by repeated viola notes in Spring, or the high-pitched plucking of strings evoking icy rain in Winter, for example. A chamber string orchestra accompanies the virtuosic solo violin part in this familiar, tuneful masterwork.
“Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are timeless. The music is so vibrant and imaginative, even by today’s standards,” says Urioste. “When I’m performing it, I aim to make it as representative of each season as possible, through the type of sound created—be it a warm tone, a lean tone, or something more rustic. I like to explore the full range of expressive possibilities, while also bearing in mind the time period in which it was written—bringing out the dichotomy of old and new.”
Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream similarly conjures vivid images and, of course, also has a literary inspiration. Through brilliant orchestration and instrumental effects, Mendelssohn captures the magic and frivolity of Shakespeare’s ethereal world—particularly in the Overture, where hushed, racing notes in the upper strings call to mind scampering fairy feet, and a “hee-haw” motive is unmistakably the braying of Bottom the donkey. Selections from the incidental music to be performed also include the impassioned Intermezzo, the haunting, atmospheric Nocturne, and the Wedding March—which will be readily recognized as the recessional music heard at many wedding ceremonies.
Audiences can make it a full evening exploring downtown Raleigh before or after this one-hour concert. The Symphony partners with some of the city’s best restaurants to offer great dining deals for ticket-holders.
NCS’s regular summer concert series, Summerfest (presented by UNC REX Healthcare) takes place at the outdoor Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary and opens on Saturday, May 27.
North Carolina Symphony
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Friday, June 2 at 7:30 pm
Meymandi Concert Hall
Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts (Raleigh)
PERFORMERS
North Carolina Symphony
Elena Urioste, violinMbr/> David Glover, conductor
PROGRAM
Mendelssohn: Selections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Vivaldi: Four Seasons
TICKETS START AT $18
Online: ncsymphony.org (TicketMaster fees apply)
By phone: 919.733.2750 ($8 processing fee applies)
In-person: NCS State Headquarters, 3700 Glenwood Ave., Suite 130, Raleigh (No processing fee)
About the North Carolina Symphony
Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony (NCS) is a vital and honored component of North Carolina’s cultural life. Its 175 concerts and events annually are greeted with enthusiasm by adults and schoolchildren in more than 90 North Carolina counties—in communities large and small, and in concert halls, auditoriums, gymnasiums, restaurants, clubs, and outdoor settings. The Symphony’s 66 full-time professional musicians perform under the artistic leadership of Music Director Grant Llewellyn.
NCS’s state headquarters venue is the spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. The Symphony’s service across the state includes series in Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines, and Wilmington, as well as the Summerfest series at its summer home, the outdoor Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. Collaborating with performers that range from classical artists, to banjo players, to jazz bands, NCS brings some of the world’s greatest talents to North Carolina.
Committed to engaging students of all ages across North Carolina, NCS leads the most extensive education program of any U.S. orchestra. In alignment with the curriculum set by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the Symphony provides training and resources for teachers, sends small ensembles into classrooms, and presents full-orchestra Education Concerts experienced by more than 55,000 4th and 5th graders each year. Music Discovery for preschoolers combines music with storytelling, and at the middle and high school levels, students have opportunities to work directly with NCS artists and perform for NCS audiences.
NCS is dedicated to giving voice to new art, and has presented 47 U.S. or world premieres in its history. In March 2017, NCS appeared at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as one of four orchestras chosen for the inaugural year of SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras – an honor that recognized the Symphony’s innovative community partnerships and creative programming that inspires increased interest in new music.
The first state-supported symphony in the country, NCS performs under the auspices of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
