Tango, Dance Music Highlight ASO Performances
Dance music best described as “hypnotic rhythms” will highlight a pair of upcoming performances by the Alma Symphony Orchestra.
The ASO will perform the colorful and invigorating international dance
music of Johann Strauss Jr., Bela Bartók, Manual de Falla, Emmanuel
Chabrier and Astor Piazzolla at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17 and 3 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 18 in the Remick Heritage Center at Alma College.
Tickets are $10 for adults and free for youth 18 and under. Seating is
reserved. For more information or to reserve tickets, call the Heritage
Center Box Office at (989) 463-7304 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through
Friday.
The program, titled “Hypnotic Rhythms,” also features music by Folias,
a mid-Michigan based duo that consists of flutist Carmen Maret and
classical guitarist Andrew Bergeron and specializes in tango
music.
“The concert starts out a bit more refined, but by the last dance it is
much more wild,” says ASO Director Murray Gross. “It’s all
exciting and appealing music.”
The concert opens with Strauss’s famous and jovial “On the Beautiful
Blue Danube” waltz, considered most emblematic of Viennese waltzes
after its premiere in 1867. Following this piece is Bartók’s
“Romanian Dances,” which comprises six rhythmic folk dances first
transcribed for small orchestra in 1917,and is “a little more down to
earth than Strauss,” says Gross.
The program continues with the hypnotic and lively “Habanera” by
Chabrier. Based on the Cuban habanera dance, Chabrier first
published the song in 1885 for piano and transcribed it three years
later for orchestra. Completing the first half of the concert is
Manuel de Falla’s “Suite from ‘The Three Corned Hat.’” Based on the
classic novel by Antonio Pedro de Alarcon, the suite incorporates
numerous Spanish dance and musical styles that capture the comic nature
of the book and Spanish culture and art.
The second portion of the program commences with an arrangement of
Piazzolla’s “Milonga del Angel,” written by Folias’s Bergeron. This
Piazzolla piece was one of two tangos composed for the 1962 play in
which an angel comes to save the impoverished residents of Buenos
Aires. Between Piazzolla’s pieces is music by Folias.
Concluding the concert is Piazzolla’s “Tangazo,” which was written in
1969 to reflect the urban life of Buenos Aires. Piazzolla’s
“nuevo tango” music is “something everyone can enjoy,” says
Gross.
The performances are sponsored in part by The Loraine and Melinese
Reuter Foundation, through the Comerica Charitable Services Group.
Posted: Mon, February 5th, 2007 at 7:23PM
