2019-
St. Mark’s United Methodist, 3502 Clairemont Dr, San Diego, CA 92117:
"French Flair"
The Sinfonia returns to St. Mark’s United Methodist with a varied program highlighting the music of French composers. The feature work will be
- Camille Saint-Saëns: powerful Symphony No. 3, which boasts a large and colorful orchestra, featuring both piano and pipe organ!
- Charles Gounod: Saltarello, a rollicking dance
- Georges Bizet: Micaëla's Aria, from the passionate opera "Carmen"
- Erik Satie: Two Gymnopedies, lovingly orchestrated by his friend Claude Debussy.
- Hector Berlioz: Hungarian March from the almost-opera/oratorio "Damnation of Faust,"
- Jacques Offenbach: Overture to “Orpheus in the Underworld, complete with its iconic Can-Can!"
“Time and Space” Sinfonia closes its 33rd Season with “Time and Space,” a program of music spanning three Centuries and six Nations! This far-ranging concert will take place on Friday evening, May 31, at 7:30 p.m., in the striking All Souls’ Episcopal Church, 1475 Catalina Blvd., in Point Loma.
- 18th Century
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G Minor
Features Music Teachers Competition Winner Dasha Zerboni.
Mozart: Overture to “Don Giovani”
This famous overture previews music from the opera, including the haunting graveyard scene. - 19th Century
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2
The Sinfonia gets a jump on the worldwide 2020 celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the composer’s birth with this energetic work.
Kalinnikov: Intermezzo No. 1
Admired by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, the short-lived composer left only two symphonies (No. 1 given its San Diego premiere by the Sinfonia) and some smaller works, like this evocative Intermezzo. - 20th Century
Sibelius: Valse Triste
Originally part of the incidental music for the play Kuolema, this evanescent work is far better known as a separate concert piece, and from appearances in film.
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
Originally a movement from his String Quartet, the expanded Adagio has become one of the best-loved of 20th-Century works, used for many state occasions as well as in film.
Inspiring Cities
Paradise Valley 7th-Day Adventist Church
2701 East 8th St., in National City
- London: Symphony No. 99 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Although Haydn spent virtually all of his career in the employ of the Eszterházy family in what is now Hungary, two trips to London were hugely successful, both financially and musically, inspiring among numerous other works, his 12 "London" symphonies. Symphony 99 was his first to include clarinets, which became the standard for Beethoven, Mendelssohn and many others.
- Budapest: Serenade in F Minor, Op. 3 Leó Weiner (1885-1960) One of the leading Hungarian music educators of the first half of the 20th century, Weiner spent his career at the Academy of Music (now known as the Franz Liszt Academy) in Budapest. While there, he won numerous composition prizes, including several for this sparkling Serenade, with its hints of eastern European folk music.
- St. Petersburg: Overture to Prince Kholmsky Mihkail Glinka (1804-1857) Although he spent a good deal of time traveling (Paris, Berlin, etc.) Glinka always found his way back to Russia, finding his greatest success in St. Petersburg, where he wrote this powerful Overture to the Incidental music for a production of the play Prince Kholmsky.
- New York: Russian Christmas Music Alfred Reed (1921-2005) Alfred Reed was born in New York City, and studied composition at the Juilliard School of Music, returning there for the premiere of the second version of his stirring Russian Christmas Music. Originally for concert band, the piece in its orchestral version still has plenty of stirring moments with winds and brass.
- San Diego: Symphonic Suite in G Steven Thompson (b. 1956) Sinfonia violinist Steven Thompson has found many opportunities to perform in San Diego and other parts of southern California, in ensembles small and large. He has also done a fair amount of arranging, which led to composing, and this folk song-like Suite.
Simply Sibelius
The Sinfonia will appear again on the St. Mark’s United Methodist Church Concert Series, this year with a program celebrating Finland’s “national composer,”Jean Sibelius.
- The feature work will be his powerful Symphony No. 2, the work which cemented his international reputation, and which remains one of his most often performed pieces.
- Also on this program will be Sibelius’ stirring Karelia Suite, a Suite from the film score “Prince of Egypt,” and
- Beethoven’s the Overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus,” part of the worldwide commemoration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday.
