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ROCHESTER — The Nazareth College Department of Music’s Symphony Orchestra (Nancy Strelau, conductor) will present Big and Bigger! From Land, Sea and Space-its final concert of the season at 4 p.m. April 22 in the College’s Linehan Chapel. This performance is free and open to the public
The concert will open with And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovhaness, widely considered to be one of the composer/s favorite works. The piece depicts the transformation of chaos to beauty through the creation of earth, oceans, and whales.
The second piece of the afternoon will be Antonio Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto, featuring Mariah Bondy (M.M. candidate) and Katrya Cichanowicz (M.S. candidate). Listeners will enjoy the double concerto’s tone color and minor key, which help to portray the work’s relatively somber sound. The two cellos assert their presence at the opening Allegro-which features an attractive interlude into a major mode-then converse with each other through harmonization, call and response, and canonic imitation.
The third piece on the program is the Star Wars Epic by John Williams, highlighting instrumental intensity from “Across the Stars,” “Revenge of the Sith,” “Princess Leia’s Theme,” “Imperial March,” and the Star Wars theme. The concert will conclude with the suspenseful 1812 Overture by P.I. Tschaikovsky, featuring great dynamic contrast, impactful instrumentation, and dramatic percussive sections. This piece commemorates Russia’s defense of its motherland against Napoleon’s invasion of Grande Armee in 1812.
