Great composers of romantic era are highlight of SC Phil Masterworks Concert – March 10
March 4, 2018
On Saturday March 10, 2018, 7:30 PM at the Koger Center for the Arts, the South Carolina Philharmonic (SCP) audience will enjoy an evening of blockbuster classical selections by two of the romantic era’s most prominent composers: Frederic Chopin and Johannes Brahms.
The program will open with a popular overture by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture to La clemenza di Tito, K, 621. Mozart was ordered to write this work for the celebration in Prague of Emperor Leopold’s coronation in 1671. The piece was written in a hurry, and the listener will hear shades of the Magic Flute intertwined as Mozart was deep in the process of composing that piece when interrupted. A brassy lyrical work, the overture remains popular in classical programs today.
The performance takes a romantic turn when 17 year old David Hou, winner of the 2016 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, joins Maestro Morihiko Nakahara and the full orchestra to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. This is a rousing piano concerto with all the frills and furbelows for the soloist, but it also contains poignant melodies that were to characterize the composer’s subsequent music for solo piano. A young up and coming pianist, Hou has received critical accolades for his stirring professional performances and numerous national competition placements.
The concert concludes with the bold Symphony No. 1 in C minor opus 68, by Johannes Brahams. The symphony, which took 14 years to complete, is big, lyrical, lush, innovating and contrasting in its melodious and spine-chilling moods, and emulates major works of Beethoven in scope, depth and dramatic effect.
Tickets for this rousing evening of cinematic musical fireworks are $47, $39, $31, $23, or $17. They are available online 24-hours a day at KogerCenterForTheArts.com, or from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Monday through Friday by phone at 803.251.2222, or at the Koger Center Box Office at Park and Greene Streets. Student and military discounts are available. Self-parking is available in the Discovery Garage behind the Koger Center (charges set by Republic Parking) and Southern Valet provides valet parking for $10.
Nakahara presents the popular pre-concert lecture series Classical Conversations at 6:30 p.m. in the Koger Center auditorium, offering unique insight into the evening’s program, free to all ticket-holders.
Music for a Cause – Harvest Hope Food Bank
Every season since 2011, the S.C. Phil selects a group of charity partners from the Midlands to help raise awareness for their causes. Each charity is featured at one Masterworks concert during the season. The cause selected for this performance is Harvest Hope Food Bank, as part of a national food drive we participate in called Orchestra Feeding America. Over the past eight years Orchestras Feeding America has seen over 360 nationwide orchestras collect and donate nearly 500,000 pounds of food. The efforts of these orchestras have helped spread the word about how and why orchestras are so necessary for their communities, beyond providing amazing music.
