PROGRAM: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla by Glinka The Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Carl Roskott, will perform concerts on Saturday, January 29 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 30 at 3:30 pm. The concert will include works by Glinka and Shostakovich and cellist Amy Leung will be featured on the Elgar Cello Concerto. The concerts will be held at Old Cabell Hall on the Lawn of the University of Virginia. Cellist Amy Leung has been principal cellist of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra for three years. Graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music and receiving her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland, Leung has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Israel, Hong Kong, and Guatemala. As a founding member of the Coolidge Quartet she was the subject of a documentary film produced in 2000 entitled “Four Fours,” and participated in Isaac Stern’s Third International Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. The concert will begin with Glinka’s dazzling Overture to the opera Ruslan and Ludmilla. Glinka, considered the father of Russian music, amazingly composed the Overture in one evening as an example for his composition students. Edward Elgar wrote his Cello Concerto in the aftermath of the First World War. The climate of the time, with its sense of all encompassing destruction provided the foundation for this searing work. The work has been said to have “profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity ... a fine spirit's lifelong wistful brooding upon the loveliness of earth." The definitive recording of the work is said to be that of Jacqueline Du Pre, the cellist who inspired the 1998 film Hilary and Jackie. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 1 as a graduation piece at the Leningrad Conservatory at the age of 19. The Symphony was a smashing success and the composer achieved immediate fame, though he was poor and worked as a silent movie pianist to help his family after the death of his father. Truly the voice of the Soviet people, Shostakovich was exceptionally prolific, writing fifteen symphonies and exploring jazz and folk music as well. An informative pre-concert lecture will be given by Professor Richard Will 45 minutes before each concert starts in nearby Minor Hall. Join the orchestra for a celebration of sound!
For more information contact Bill Martin at or Marcy Day at |
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