The Plainfield Symphony will present its annual Family Concert on Saturday February 21, 2015 at 3:00pm under the baton of guest conductor Michael Avagliano. The program entitled “The Orchestra Grows Up” will feature a musical tour through the history of the symphony featuring selections from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic to the Modern era.
From the Baroque era, two works will be featured. Antonio Vivaldi based each of his “The Four Seasons” concertos (circa 1720) on a set of sonnets — poems. The music in each concerto describes exactly what’s going on in the poems. The orchestra will perform the Allegro movement from Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, “La primavera” (Spring) which includes birds, brooks, breezes and thunderstorms. The“Water Music”is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as threesuites, composed byGerman-born, British baroque composer George Frederic Handel. The work premièred on July 17, 1717 after King George I had requested a concert on the River Thames. The Bourrée movement from Suite No. 1 in F major HWV348 will be played.
The first movement (Allegro) of Mozart’s Symphony No.40 in G minor, KV. 550, composed in 1788, along with the conclusion of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, written 1804–1808, will represent the Classical era as two of its best known compositions.
For the Romantic Era, piano soloist Doris Lee will perform Frederic Chopin’s Grande Polonaise Brillante inE-flat major,Op.22, composed in 1830-1831. Ms. Lee is a 2014 Princeton University graduate and winner of numerous awards and piano competitions. She has studied piano with Yelena Ivanov since 2002.
The Modern Era feature will be American Composer Aaron Copland’s “Hoe-Down” from the 1942 ballet Rodeo. Copland is noted for incorporating traditional American folk tunes in his compositions.
