Young Artist Competition winner to perform with symphony
By DON HUPEFor the Times-News
The Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor and Music Director Thomas Joiner, will present an "Images of Italy" concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Conference Hall at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock.
The HSO will perform classic works by Italian composers Rossini and Respighi, and this year's Young Artist Competition winner, pianist Kiffen Loomis, will also share a performance.
The program begins with the "William Tell" Overture from the opera "William Tell" composed by Gioachino Rossini, which premiered in 1829. This was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he only wrote smaller vocal works.
The overture has four sections, which total about 12 minutes, musically painting a picture of life in the Swiss Alps. The first is a slow prelude signifying dawn, scored for five cellos and double bass accompaniment, beginning with a beautiful cello solo. This grows into an impending storm, with tympani rolls as thunder, followed by the storm itself using the full power of the orchestra. A pastorale section follows with a horn playing a "Call to the Cows," creating a segment used in Disney cartoons to signify a beautiful daybreak.
The finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers," is the most famous gallop, which is led by trumpets and played by the full orchestra. It is instantly recognizable as the music used to signify the hero coming to the rescue in many movie and cartoon settings, and most famously as the "Lone Ranger" theme.
The Young Artist Competition winner, pianist Kiffen Loomis, then will join the orchestra to perform "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," Op. 43, by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Loomis is a 16-year-old student from Asheville who has performed with the Charlotte and Winston-Salem symphonies and won numerous awards. He studies with Suzan Fehr in Asheville and is the president of "Notes from the Soul," a musical education group that works with children from WNC. He has also studied at the Brevard Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival and school.
"Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" resembles a piano concerto in scope, but has an introduction, a theme, and 24 variations. Rachmaninoff wrote the work over the course of six weeks at his villa in Switzerland in 1934. It is a demanding piano work, which Rachmaninoff played at the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Baltimore in the same year. He subsequently recorded the work with the same orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
Although it is played as one long series without interruption, the variations tend to group into segments similar to a standard concerto. The first 10 are equivalent to a first movement, the next seven are like a second slow movement, and the last six are the finale.
The work begins with an Allegro vivace introduction, followed by the first variation, which then is followed by the theme and then the other variations. Beethoven similarly presented a variation before the theme in the Eroica symphony. The beautiful slow 18th variation is the most recognizable of the work, and is often played as a solo work by itself.
For the conclusion of the evening, the HSO will perform "The Pines of Rome," a symphonic poem that was written in 1924 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is part of Respighi's "Roman Trilogy," which began with the "Fountains of Rome" and ended with "Roman Festivals."
There are four movements in the work, each reflecting a Roman setting for pine trees at various times during the day. The premiere of the work occurred in Rome in 1924 with Bernardino Molinari conducting.
"Pines of the Villa Borghese" reflects the sounds of playing children under the pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens, in a sunny morning setting. "Pines Near a Catacomb" creates a solemn picture of a lonely chapel in a deserted field with a few pine trees in the distance. Hymn-like sounds and deep instrumental playing reflect the depths of the catacombs. "Pines of the Janiculum" is a nocturne creating an image of a full moon shining on the hill bearing the temple of the double-faced god Janus. The final "Pines of the Appian Way" recreates the mood of the military road leading into Rome from the empire, with pine trees in the early morning breaking through the mist surrounding a triumphant legion marching toward the capital.
Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by visiting hendersonvillesymphony.org or by calling the Hendersonville Symphony office at 697-5884.