News
Maine pianist Anastasia Antonacos will perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. The orchestra will also perform a number of selections by both father and son Strauss, including the overture to Die Fledermaus and a number of waltzes.
(4/27/2010)
The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra will perform their fourth and final concert series of their 20th Anniversary season under Music Director Rohan Smith on Saturday and Sunday, May 15 and 16, 2010. Maine pianist Anastasia Antonacos will perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. The orchestra will also perform a number of selections by both father and son Strauss, including the overturetoDie Fledermaus and a number of waltzes.
Pianist Anastasia Antonacos is a member of the artist faculty at the University of Southern Maine. She has given notable performances around the world as a solo recitalist and chamber musician. Closer to home, Dr. Antonacos has made solo appearances with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with violinist Joseph Silverstein, and with members of the Vermeer, Cassatt and DaPonte Quartets. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees in piano performance from Indiana University. She has been a chamber music coach at Bay Chamber Concerts’ Next Generation program for many years, and she regularly serves as a masterclass teacher and adjudicator. Dr. Antonancos also teaches at Bates College.
The Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor came early in Brahms’s life; he wrote it in his twenties, between 1854 and 1859, when he was in the flush of being championed by Robert and Clara Schumann as the next exciting phenomenon. It is truly a young man’s work: expansive, emotionally extreme, and obviously very difficult to play. (Brahms himself was a splendid pianist but already in his twenties did not like to perform in public). Its opening orchestral gesture ranks with the great over-the-top Romantic moments; at the same time, the music connects with the greater classical tradition. It is a tremendous piece of music.
The remainder of the concert is devoted to the music of Johann Strauss the elder (1804-1849) and Johann Strauss the younger (1825-1899). Strauss is a name synonymous with the waltz. Johann the younger, indeed, is often known as the Waltz King. The Strausses did not invent either the choreography or the music for this dance, but they brought it to unprecedented popularity; Johann Strauss the younger, in particular, elaborated and developed the form. In today’s ballroom dancing culture the waltz counts as a fairly staid and “classic” dance, but its introduction at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries was something of a sensation because it set couples in an unusually tight front-to-front embrace, and because the Viennese version involved a lot of spinning and twirling. Parents worried that their daughters were in danger of being literally swept off their feet and compromised. Unsurprisingly, this worry did not diminish the popularity of the dance.
The orchestra will be playing the well-known Blue Danube and Acceleration waltzes, along with the Unter Donner Und Blitz (Thunder and Lightening) Polka, among other pieces written by father and son. The orchestra will also perform the overture to Die Fledermaus, one of the most successful light operas written by the younger Strauss. It is a merry story involving many disguises, more parties, and even more opportunities for the characters to sing set pieces, some of which find their way into the overture.
Performances are Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston and Sunday, May 16, at 2:30pm at the Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham. Tickets are $15 and available online at http://www.midcoastsymphony.org/, also Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Magnolia in Bath, or at the concert hall prior to the performance. For additional information or to purchase by phone, please call (207) 846-5378. 18 and younger admitted free.