Eastman Philharmonia, October 2010
Come join the Eastman community in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, Saturday, September 27 at 8 p.m., for an exciting concert filled with the Grimm Brothers, titans, and poetic song cycles.
The Eastman Symphony Orchestra (ESSO) and the Eastman Philharmonia, conducted by Neil Varon, will be joined by Megan Moore for an action-packed program of Overture to Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdinck, Les Nuits d’ete by Hector Berlioz, and finally Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler.
The opera Hansel and Gretel has a libretto based on the original version of the German folktale published by the Grimm Brothers. Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’ete (Summer Nights), in which Megan Moore will be the soloist, is a musical setting of six poems by Theophile Gautier.
Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, written between 1887 and 1888, is known as ‘Titan’. The four-movement work incorporates many aspects of German Lied and was considered by Mahler himself as a symphonic poem. The first three movements highlight Mahler’s love of nature; the finale springs forth with violent tension but ends heroically.
This concert brings together the two primary Eastman Orchestras, ESSO and the Philharmonia, and will be the opening orchestral concert of the Eastman academic year. This events is free and open to the public.
— Andrew Psarris, ’15