Southeastern Chamber Orchestra to present celebration concert May 2
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
by: Tonya Lowentritt
SOUTHEASTERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM - The Southeastern Chamber Orchestra will present its last concert of the season May 2. Titled “German Baroque Masters,” the free concert is scheduled in Pottle Music Auditorium at 7.30 p.m. Violin Professor and Orchestra Director Victor Correa-Cruz will serve as concertmaster and conductor.
HAMMOND – The Southeastern Chamber Orchestra will present its last concert of
the season May 2, in Pottle Music Auditorium at 7.30 p.m. Titled “German Baroque Masters,”
the free concert is a celebration of the orchestra’s nomination as “Collegiate Program
of the Month” by the Philadelphia International Music Festival, a project that features
members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“This is a great honor that is shared with the Department of Music, as well as
with the entire Southeastern Community,” said Violin Professor and Orchestra Director
Victor Correa-Cruz. “The Orchestra wants to acknowledge the support it has received
from Southeastern, as well as from its growing audience. The concert highlights works
from two of the most prolific and influential German composers, Johann Sebastian Bach
and Georg Friedrich Händel, that will be the perfect companions for this celebration.”
Correa-Cruz will serve as concertmaster and conductor, while Director of Choral
Activities and Associate Professor of Voice Alissa Mercurio Rowe and violin graduate
student Marta Turianska will perform as soloists.
The program includes Händel´s Concerti Grossi Op. 6 no. 1 and 12, as well as
two of his most famous arias: “Lascia ch´io pianga” from his opera Rinaldo and “Non
disperar” from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, to be sung by Rowe.
The orchestra will also present Bach´s Concerto for two Violins and Orchestra
in D minor, having Cruz and Turianska performing solos.
Händel´s two Concerti Grossi where composed following Italian Arcangello Corelli´s
model. The pieces include many of the compositional resources of the time, Correa-Cruz
said, as well as different dances, such as the mussette, menuetto, sarabande and gigue.
They were composed in 1739.
“Bach´s Double Concerto is most probably a production from his days in Cöthen,
where he was not so busy writing religious music and could devote his time to compose
concertos, sonatas and orchestral suites,” Correa-Cruz said. “The music of this period
shows a lively approach, but Bach keeps counterpoint and fugue as main tools for developing
his works, still showing aspects of his deep and transcendental style. The Brandemburg
Concerti were also written in this period at Cöthen.”
“Händel arias belong to two of his most famous operas and have become part of
the standard repertoire as separate pieces,” he added. “’Lascia ch´io pianga’ (Let
me cry) shows Händel at his peak of dramatic achievement, while ‘Non disperar’ projects
hope and enthusiasm (Do not despair, in love you will find the joy you don´t have
reigning…).”
For more information about the concert, contact the Department of Music and Performing
Arts at 985-549-2184.