Song and Dance
Location: Portsmouth
Date: 17-11-2012
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: Portsmouth Guildhall
Works Performed
- Bernstein : Candide Overture
- Copland : Appalachian Spring
- Rachmaninov : Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
- Copland : Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes
- Bernstein : West Side Story: Symphonic Dances
Performers
- Conductor : David Hill
- Soloist: Alexander Gavrylyuk (Piano)
- Soloist: Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
During the 1930s, Copland and celebrated choreographer Martha Graham developed a mutual sense of admiration, based on their shared interest in simple, natural expression. Thus Appalachian Spring was born. The Shaker tune Simple Gifts fits well with Graham’s image of unity, simplicity and American rural life. Copland presents a series of variations on this tune - the music is illuminated by an inner glow of greater warmth and poignancy than perhaps any of his earlier works and has become the quintessential representative of American musical nationalism.
West Side Story was a milestone in the history of American theatre. In 1961 Bernstein revisited the score and extracted nine sections to assemble into what he called the Symphonic Dances. The suite opens with the famous opening confrontation of the Jets and the Sharks. The haunting strains of Somewhere contrast with the lively Latin dances of the Mambo and Cha-cha. The Cool fugue features a 12-tone scale, and segues into the final, deadly fight between the gangs in Rumble, while a solo flute plays I Had a Love to close the suite, which ends, like the musical, on a haunting, unresolved chord.
Pre-Concert Talk: 6.40 - 7.10pm
Free to all ticket-holders. Find out more here.
Travelling in a small group to Portsmouth? You can save money with South West Trains GroupSave discount - when 3 or 4 people travel together off-peak only 2 pay! Find out more here. The Guildhall is adjacent to Portsmouth & Southsea station.
