News
The third concert series of the orchestra's 20th anniversary season will feature pianist Charles Floyd playing the Grieg Concerto in A Minor, Kalinnikov's First Symphony, and An American Hymn, written by Tom Vignieri in 2001
(2/12/2010)
The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra will perform their third concert series of their 20th Anniversary season under guest conductor Yoichi Ugadawa on Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, 2010. Pianist Charles Floyd will perform the Grieg piano Concerto in A Minor (The Norwegian), and the orchestra will also perform Kalinnikov’s First Symphony and An American Hymn by Vignieri, a piece commissioned by Mr. Ugadawa in 2001.
In response to the standing-room-only popularity of its performances in Topsham, the orchestra will open the Orion’s auxiliary seating section (approximately 200 additional seats) as well as additional entrances for the Sunday afternoon concert for the comfort and convenience of the audience.
Mr. Ugadawa last conducted the Midcoast Symphony in a critically acclaimed concert series two years ago. His performances have been hailed as "powerful and emotionally evocative," and his relaxed manner and ability to speak from the podium have helped new audiences and as well as enthusiasts gain a greater appreciation for symphonic music.
Music Director and Conductor of the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, the Melrose Symphony Orchestra, and the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Udagawa is also on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory where he teaches conducting. In addition, he is a cover conductor at the Boston Pops Orchestra.
The pianist for Grieg Concert, Charles Floyd, described as “a pianist of unusual charm and admirable grace” with a “big ringing tone and phenomenal chops” by reviewers, is also an accomplished and well known conductor and composer. Mr. Floyd began studying piano at age four, gave his first solo recital at age nine, and by age twenty had been heard in solo, chamber and concerto performances throughout the United States and Spain. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Aspen School of Music Fellowship, Oberlin Conservatory’s Rudolf Serkin Award, Chicago’s Louis Sudler Civic and Arts Foundation, and the National Chopin Competition of New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation. His compositions range from solo and chamber music to large orchestral and vocal worksIn addition to his accomplishments as a performer Mr. Floyd is an annual guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and has been in concert with more than 500 orchestras internationally since 1991. In July, 2005, he joined the small team of conductors performing Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings Symphony at the request of the Oscar-winning film composer. In January, 2009, he conducted the HBO pre-inaugural concert We Are One on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for President Barack Obama.Evard Grieg’s piano Concerto in A Minor is a wonderfully popular showpiece for the piano. Though Grieg was a nationalist composer and very popular in his native Norway, particularly known for his Peer Gynt Suite and pieces incorporating Scandinavian folk music, this concerto also exhibits the emotional flourishes of the German Romantics he studied with and admired. The fast demonic fairy-tale-like music that follows the movement’s main theme and a short dreamy passage might make us think of Scandinavian folk tales and trolls, but it is not unlike passages of Schumann, an early mentor.
The orchestra is pleased to present the Maine debut of An American Hymn, by Tom Vignieri. Vignieri is a Boston-based composer and music administrator. In his day job he is currently a producer for the popular radio show “From the Top.” “An American Hymn” was commissioned by Yoichi Udagawa for his Melrose Symphony Orchestra and first performed in 2001. The main theme starts in the brass with the tune harmonized with a mixture of familiar and more Copland-esque chords. This section ends with the brass suddenly revealing the strings at the cadence, as though they had been there all along. The middle section recasts the first section for strings and winds, while the final full statement of the material is a grand passage involving the whole orchestra, including timpani. The final gentle cadence in the strings recalls the end of the first section. This short work builds on the notion of musical American-ness propagated by Aaron Copland: Its retrospective quality suggests an elegiac attitude to an America held in loving memory rather than to one newly imagined. The piece has also been performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta,recorded by the Boston Sinfonietta, and conducted by Mr. Ugadawa with the Melrose, Cape Ann, and Quincy orchestras.
Vasily (Basil) Kalinnikov is a composer much better known in Russia than in the West. He died young—at 35—before his name was fully made. Had he had more time to compose, he would likely have been better known in the west. Kalinikov’s First Symphony was during his lifetime his most successful work and remains part of the regular repertory in Russia. This symphony is highly tuneful, and has a Russian “tinge” without actually quoting any actual folk material. However, its single and very Russian feature, is the “wall of sound” created by the brass choir’s big tunes, often amplified by fast passagework in the strings and colorful percussion backup.
Performances are Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston and Sunday, March 21, 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.