Concert Season
Past Concerts
Concert Season
Masterworks Series IV ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY OSO!
Bethel Tabernacle Church, Thursday, March 25, 7:00 p.m.
Kelowna Community Theatre, Friday, March 26, 7:00 p.m.
Vernon Performing Arts Centre, Saturday, March 27, 7:00 p.m.
It's our birthday! The Okanagan Symphony Orchestra turns fifty in 2010, and it's definitely time for a party. Actually, three parties: Audience members, guest artists and musicians will celebrate onstage in each of our three performance centres immediately following each concert, so we're starting a bit early ~7:00 o'clock ~ so everyone can have a chance to have a good time with us. But first, there will be music ~ in fact, the exact same music that the very first Okanagan Symphony Orchestra performed under the baton of Willem Bertsch, opening in Penticton, in February of 1960. To make our celebration extra special, we have invited all our former living conductors to come back and conduct a piece with us for this concert ~ and we're inviting back any and all former players of the OSO to join us on stage and play The Waltz from Sleeping Beauty, for old time's sake. Here's our line-up from 1960: lots of shorter works and excerpts, "popular classics":
Symphony No. 94 in G major [Adagio: vivace assai; Andante; Menuetto: allegro molto; Finale: allegro molto], Joseph Haydn
Leonard Camplin, Conductor Laureate, Guest Conductor
Haydn's Symphony No.94, familiarly known as the Surprise Symphony (1791) is the most popular of the twelve so-called London Symphonies written for a concert series during his first visits to England. Camplin was Conductor of the OSO from 1964 to1995. He is currently Conductor of the Burnaby Symphony Orchestra, the annual Kelowna Canada Day Pops Orchestra, and the principal guest conductor of Australia's newest symphony orchestra, the McQuarie Philharmonia, the Australia Inland Symphony Orchestra.
Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin
Rolf Bertsch, Guest Artist, Piano
The late Willem Bertsch was the first Conductor of the OSO, from 1960 to1963. In a special tribute to his father, Rolf Bertsch joins us as a Guest Artist and Conductor: he is Conductor of the Calgary Civic Orchestra. Rhapsody in Blue, written in 1924 by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. It premiered in the concert "An Experiment in Modern Music", in 1924 in New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano. The version for piano and symphony, orchestrated in 1942, has become one of the most popular American concert works.
Sheep May Safely Graze, JS Bach
This short work is the most familiar part of Bach's "Hunting Cantata" BWV208, a secular cantata composed in 1713.
Turkish March from The Ruins of Athens, Ludwig van Beethoven
Rolf Bertsch, Guest Conductor
Perhaps the best-known music from The Ruins of Athens, a set of incidental music written in 1811 by Beethoven is the Turkish March, a theme that many are familiar with, who are not avid classical music listeners. The overture and the Turkish March are often performed separately, and the other pieces of this set are not often heard.
L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2 [Pastorale; Intermezzo; Menuet; Farandole], Georges Bizet
Written for full orchestra, Suite No. 2 was arranged and published in 1879, four years after Bizet's death, by Ernest Guiraud, using Bizet's original themes. There are four movements: only Farandole was performed in 1960; we are performing the entire Suite!
Waltz from the Ballet Sleeping Beauty, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The famous "Garland Waltz" was danced at Princess Aurora's sixteenth birthday party. All former players of the OSO are invited to join the 2010 OSO on stage for this celebratory performance connecting fifty years of classical music performance in the Okanagan Valley.
Join the orchestra and guests onstage each night for an "Afterparty" to be Remembered!!
