North Carolina Symphony Visits ¡España! with Bizet’s Carmen & More
By: Gabrielle Sierra Oct. 13, 2011
North Carolina Symphony Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks takes Triangle concertgoers straight into the intersection of neighboring cultures with "¡España!," a fresh look at how Spanish flavors inspired French music and vice versa.
The 2011/12 season's first entry in the Symphony's popular matinee series Friday Favorites, this relaxed, 90-minute concert takes place at Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh's Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Nov. 4 at 12:00 p.m.
The concert opens with the quintessential example of musical success resulting from the mixing of European cultures. In fact, "success" is too small a term. French composer Georges Bizet's Spanish masterwork Carmen is likely the most frequently performed opera in the world, having reached 3,000 performances in Paris alone within a half-century of its premiere in 1875. The Symphony performs a Suite of six movements from the legendary score, including the popular Toreadors theme, one of the most ubiquitous melodies in classical music.
"If you want to learn how to orchestrate," wrote composer Richard Strauss, himself a master of symphonic sonority, "study Carmen...It is sheer perfection. What wonderful economy, how every note is in its proper place."
From this groundbreaking beginning, the Symphony explores several important musical aftershocks. First is Pablo de Sarasate's tricky and energetic Fantasy After Carmen, as played by 14-year-old violinist Sein An.
The 2009 co-winner in the junior division of the North Carolina Symphony's Youth Concerto Competition and currently a student at Temple University Music Prep, An takes center stage in her first appearance with the North Carolina Symphony. She performs a particularly demanding violin showpiece, written by one of the all-time masters of the instrument.
The concert continues with French composer Emmanuel Chabrier's colorful ode to Spanish culture, fittingly titled España. The work features an enticing and celebrated blend of two folk styles: the fierce jota and sensuous, dreamy malagueña. Composer Constant Lambert labeled this 1883 work "the most perfectly orchestrated composition of the last century," while Spanish master Manuel De Falla marveled at Chabrier's innovations within a Spanish form.
"No Spaniard has succeeded better than Chabrier in giving us, with such authenticity and genius, the variety of jota shouted by the country folk of Aragon," he said.
The orchestra then returns to the theatrical world, first with selections from Jules Massenet's grand opera Le Cid, the finest and most successful opera based on Spain's iconic folk hero. Then music from Manuel De Falla's ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, his first written for the legendary Ballet Russe, completes the circle, from a French composer mastering Spanish music in Carmen to a Spanish composer finding success in the wake of Carmen's wild popularity.
"¡España!" is the first 2011/12 Friday Favorites concert. This season, the matinee series explores music that inspired composers to cross national boundaries-if not oceans-to celebrate the vitality and joy of another culture's musical heritage. It continues in February 2012 with "Dvo?ák and America," written and produced by Joseph Horowitz and featuring complete performance of Dvo?ák's "New World" Symphony. In May 2012, Symphony Resident Conductor William Henry Curry leads an exploration of Italian melody in "Viva Italia."
Subscriptions to all three Friday Favorites concerts are currently on sale for $57. General admission tickets to the Friday Favorites performance of "¡España!" on Friday, Nov. 4, are $25.
Additional performances of "¡España!" will be held at Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 8:00 p.m. and Kenan Auditorium, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 3:00 p.m. The Symphony, led by Hicks and joined by Sein An, will also present the concert to audiences in New Bern and Chapel Hill, March 24-25, 2012.
Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh. The NCS Matinees Friday Favorites Series is presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
Beyond the Stage
Pre-concert talks and "Meet the Artist" events are held before Symphony concerts across the state. These engaging conversations offer a unique perspective on the concert's featured artists, as well as the chance to ask questions and learn the inside story on some of music's greatest compositions.
For next month's "¡España!" concerts, Dr. Barry Salwen of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington will present a pre-concert talk in Raleigh in the Meymandi Concert Hall lobby on Friday, Nov. 4 at 11:00 a.m. and in Wilmington in Kenan Auditorium on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 1:50 p.m.
Josiah Stevenson will host "Meet the Artists" in Southern Pines in the Pinecrest High School band room on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 6:45 p.m.
About the North Carolina Symphony
Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts annually to adults and school children. The orchestra travels extensively throughout the state to venues in over 50 North Carolina counties. The orchestra employs 67 professional musicians under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn, Resident Conductor William Henry Curry and Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks.
Based in downtown Raleigh's spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It also holds regular concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington and individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year.
For tickets, program notes, podcasts, musician profiles, the Symphony blog and more, visit the North Carolina Symphony Web site at www.ncsymphony.org. Call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.
Concert/Event Listing:
North Carolina Symphony
¡España!
Sarah Hicks, Associate Conductor
Sein An, violin
Thur, Nov 3, 2011, 8pm
Lee Auditorium, Pinecrest High School, Southern Pines
Fri, Nov 4, 2011, 12pm*
Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh
Sun, Nov 6, 2011, 3pm
Kenan Auditorium, UNC-Wilmington, Wilmington
Sat, Mar 24, 2012, 7:30pm
New Bern Riverfront Convention Center, New Bern
Sun, Mar 25, 2012, 8pm
Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
*no intermission
Program Listing:
North Carolina Symphony
¡España!
Sarah Hicks, Associate Conductor
November 3-6, 2011
March 24-25, 2012
Suite from Carmen
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
I. Prelude to Act I
II. Aragonaise (Prelude to Act IV)
III. Intermezzo (Prelude to Act III)
IV. Seguidilla (Act I)
V. Habanera (Act I)
VI. The Toreadors (Prelude to Act I)
Fantasy After Bizet's Carmen for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Sein An, violin
España
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
Ballet Music from Le Cid
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
I. Castillane
II. Andalouse
III. Aragonaise
IV. Aubade
V. Catalane
VI. Madrilène
VII. Navarraise
Suite Nos. 1 and 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat
Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)
Introduction - Afternoon - Dance of the Miller's Wife - The Corregidor -
The Grapes - The Neighbors - The Miller's Dance - Final Dance
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