LANCASTER—The Northern Neck Orchestra (NNO) on Saturday, March 7, will bring together a combination of old and contemporary compositions ranging in style from 19th century Romanticism to 21st century gospel with some 1940s swing. The program will feature compositions by Carlos Simon, Adolphus Hailstork, Felix Mendelssohn, and James Johnson.
The concert will begin at 7 p.m. at the Lancaster Elementary School Theater, 191 School Street, Kilmarnock. Music director Michael Repper will present a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m.
Admission is by season subscription or $40. Tickets will be available at northernneckorchestra.org and the door. Students are admitted free with an online registration.
As the audience for the concert is arriving, the SONNY String Quartet will perform in the lobby. Sponsored by the Rappahannock Concert Association and funded by the NNO, the quartet includes advanced students of the Crewe Academy for Strings. The group plays in libraries for children, where it presents a “petting zoo” of string instruments.
“This evening’s concert is a conversation across centuries about faith, struggle and renewal,” said Repper. “From the Felix Mendelssohn piece to Adolphus Hailstork’s ‘Three Spirituals’ and the contemporary urgency of Carlos Simon’s ‘Amen!’ each work explores the meaning of having to endure, hope and believe.”
The performance will open with Simon’s “Amen!,” composed in 2017. The piece, which has no breaks separating its three movements, is described as “opening with a rumble and symbolic elements of church bells ringing while trombones are providing jazz harmonies, and highlighted solo passages by the xylophone and piano that’s accompanied by the orchestra’s syncopated rhythm that embodies organists when providing back up to pastors during their sermons in the Black church.”
The second movement brings to mind George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” just as the third movement may remind audience members of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” The piece closes with a trombone solo harking back to the opening rumble, framing an exciting ride from start to finish.
Hailstork wrote his “Three Spirituals for Orchestra” in 2005 as part of the opening celebration of the Crispus Attucks Theater in Norfolk, basing his piece on three traditional spiritual songs.
In the first movement, strings and woodwinds lead into an orchestral richness led by trumpets. That theme recurs throughout the movement, with syncopated accompaniments played by bassoon, trumpet and horn solos, leading into the ensemble’s ending with a reprise of the opening material.
A solemn string accompaniment sets the scene for the second movement, with its richness of harmonies, nuanced suspensions and dazzling string writing, followed by clarinet’s development of the medley and a poignant close.
The final movement is based on the spiritual “Oh Freedom,” with communication bringing together the brass and other instruments, including a repetitive snare drum.
After an intermission, the orchestra will perform Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, composed in 1830 and known as the “Reformation.” Mendelssohn, an early Romantic period composer, pianist and conductor, wrote the piece in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a key element of Lutheranism. Musical historians cite the symphony as a critical element of the Protestant Reformation.
Mendelssohn’s symphony, his second, was published 21 years after the composer died in 1863, and for that reason is numbered as his fifth symphony. His sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, gave it the name Reformation Symphony. The composer’s poor health led to delays in its completion, dampening his great hopes to have it debuted at the Augsburg Confession celebrations.
By the time of the closing piece, James P. Johnson’s “Victory Stride”—“a quintessential 1940s swing tune in a minor key”—the audience may already be well into its accompanying “toe-tapping.” The piece, written in 1944, blends “orchestral” sound with jazz-based blues and includes solo piano, brass and clarinet breaks.
The high-energy Johnson piece is praised for being “energetic” with a strong “jazz spirit.”
