WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Music was the undeniable star of this year’s A Carolina Christmas. Performed by the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus, and guest soprano Dee Donasco, the stand-alone Sunday concert provided a glorious celebration of holiday music.
Some past Carolina Christmases have leaned into theatrics. Last year, the orchestra performed the entirety of John Williams’ soundtrack of the movie Home Alone (1992) while the film played. Other seasons have included circus performers, magicians, and more.
Those shows were fun and entertaining, but it was refreshing to experience traditional and new seasonal music unencumbered by anything but splendid playing and singing, with a soupçon of audience participation thrown in for good measure.
To open the concert, Music Director Michelle Merrill strode purposefully onto the raised podium, sporting an enormous Santa hat, and lifted her baton to lead the orchestra into arranger Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival.” A medley of traditional songs and carols pulled the audience right into the heart of Christmas: “Joy to the World,” which featured a tasty trumpet solo; “God, Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”; “Good King Wenceslas”; “Silent Night,” with a notable harp part; and more. It was a rousing way to start the concert.
The soloist Dee Donasco, swathed in forest-green sequins, charmed the audience with her warm and versatile soprano, starting with “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
The mood grew even bubblier when she swung into Bette Midler’s “Cool Yule” and includes the inline rhyme: “So you’ll have a Yule that’s cool. Have a Yule that’s cool, ya’ll!”
Speaking of swinging, the orchestra did just that on Duke Ellington’s jazzy spin on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite: Overture” while Donasco took a break. “Hannukkah Festival Overture,” arranged by Lucas Richman, followed. It included six songs that either refer to the miracle of the oil that burned seven days longer than it should have or illustrate the way the holiday is celebrated today. Some of the songs are set alternately in classical or klezmer (traditional Jewish Eastern European) style. The penultimate “Mi Yimalel?” asks, “Who can retell the things that befell us?” Ultimately, the overture swells to a rollicking finale.
The klezmer parts were particularly enjoyable, energetically holding the tension between bouncy and foreboding with sparkling minor notes. Concert Master Corine Brouwer, violin, and clarinetist Eileen Young soloed masterfully.
An unusual setting of “Carol of the Bells” followed. Other carols wove into the layering of the song’s repeated passages to create a sense of musical spiraling. The mighty timpani brought in the finale.
Soprano Dee Donasco and Michelle Merrill leading the way for holiday joy. Photo credit: Lynn Felder
Donasco, wearing silvery swirling sequins, returned to the stage for an epic “Ave Maria.” As the opening piano arpeggio played, Donasco’s voice soared into the familiar Bach/Schubert melody. The orchestra also had a chance to fly on this particularly rich arrangement, and Brouwer again soloed well on violin.
Two John Williams songs and the arrival on stage of the Symphony Chorus opened the second half with “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas” and “Somewhere in my Memory” from Home Alone. Donasco came back on stage, now in Christmas red, for “Let It Snow” and “The Man With the Bag.” She dazzled again and again throughout the concert, moving seamlessly from pop to jazz to opera to musical theatre. Daryl McKenzie arranged most of the songs she performed in this concert.
“Sleigh Ride” (Leroy Anderson’s arrangement) is always an audience favorite, but it was even more so on Sunday. Merrill brought the audience in on the joke by directing them in a handclap to replicate the whip-snap sound made by the percussion section. It was fun, but we won’t be quitting our day jobs.
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” provided another audience-participation moment when about 11 audience members got to sing solos into a microphone on the “five golden rings” line – from piping young voices to a particularly impressive belter. The entire audience sang the last one.
Santa joined Donasco and Merrill onstage! Photo credit: Lynn Felder
The Winston-Salem Symphony’s videographer John Jordan read the famous reply to young Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter to the editor in 1897, accompanied by the orchestra and chorus on “Nimrod” from Elgar’s Enigma Variations. In his reply, the editor of the New York newspaper The Sun assures Virginia that so long as “love, generosity, and devotion” remain, so will Santa.
A thrilling performance of “O Holy Night” by Donasco, the orchestra, and the chorus, and a jovial setting of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” closed out a concert that was the perfect exclamation point on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and a hopeful herald to the Christmas and Hannukkah seasons.
If you missed A Carolina Christmas, there’s more holiday joy in store from the WSS. The Winston-Salem Symphony will partner with the Symphony Chorus and guest soloists for a performance of Handel’s Messiah on December 10 and with Piedmont Opera for a concert on New Year’s Eve.
For tickets and more information, visit wssymphony.org or call 336-464-0145.
