2008-09 Season: Nov | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May

Passionate Celebration
March 20, 2009
Friday, 8:00pm, Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Michael Morgan, Conductor

Pre-concert speaker: John Kendall Bailey

Program

Peteris Vasks
Sala: Symphonic Elegy for Orchestra
(2007; Magnum Opus commission)

Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 49, "La Passione" (1768)

Giuseppe Verdi Otello, Act I (1887)
Concert performance with Scott Bearden (Iago)
Other Soloists tba
and
Oakland Symphony Chorus,
Lynne Morrow, Music Director


Two passionate, stormy works from different centuries share the bill in March, presenting 18th and 19th century visions of tension and conflict. Haydn's Symphony No. 49, frequently referred to as "La Passione" or the "Sturm und Drang" Symphony, is one of his finest and most deeply emotional works.

Verdi's great tragic opera, Otello, contains magnificent choral scenes, brilliant arias and vivid orchestral writing. The roles of Otello, Desdemona and Iago are among Verdi's most demanding, and the role of Otello has been sung by some of the world's greatest tenors. We'll present Act I on the second half of this program.

Opening the concert will be the latest offering in the Magnum Opus commissioning project by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks, whose symphonic, choral and chamber works are featured on dozens of CDs.