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Philharmonic opens with flair
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
WARREN
Susan Davenny Wyner, music director and conductor of the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, has assembled a season-opening concert that ties in to Opera Western Reserve’s upcoming production of “Don Giovanni.”
The WPO’s concert is titled “A Magic Firebird!” and is designed with the whole family in mind. It will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at Christ Episcopal Church.
The program will include Stravinsky’s “Firebird” suite, Mozart’s Duo Concertante for violin and viola, an allegro by Gluck that depicts Don Juan being dragged down to a fiery hell, and movie music from John Williams’ “Star Wars” and Disney’s hit “Frozen.”
Soloists for the Mozart are acclaimed violinist Hristo Popov and Barton Samuel Rotberg, violist.
The concert will include an instrumental “petting zoo” at intermission, at which children can get close to the musicians.
Drawings by schoolchildren in the WPO’s Music in Art contest will be on display, and prizewinners will be awarded. The WPO’s contest reaches thousands of area schoolchildren.
Because Wyner will lead the orchestra at Opera Western Reserve’s Nov. 14 production of “Don Giovanni,” she has made Mozart’s opera a part of the program as a way of providing perspective on the legend of Don Juan. The concert is part of the OWR’s Don Juan Festival, a series of events leading up to the opera performance.
“Having this concert one week before Mozart’s great opera ‘Don Giovanni’ will be performed by Opera Western Reserve gives us a chance to connect both events and have one shed light on the other,” said Wyner.
“We will open our concert with the last scene from Gluck’s revolutionary 1761 ballet on the subject of Don Juan, which he titled ‘Don Juan or The Stone Guest’s Banquet.’ This piece made a deep impression on Mozart. He knew it well, and it actually inspired his own ‘Don Giovanni’ — especially the terrifying climactic scene when the statue drags Don Juan down into hell. We can hear the music Mozart heard.
“After we dispatch the wicked seducer in our first piece, we bring our soloists out for Mozart’s great Duo Concertante for violin and viola. Mozart is at the height of his powers in this 1779 concerto, and what’s particularly striking is that he gives the shyer, usually hidden viola an equal chance to shine.”
Also on the program is Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” which was written in 1910. To evoke the ancient Russian folk legend, Stravinsky conjures up orchestral effects, exotic timbres and syncopating rhythms, said Wyner.
The afternoon performance will finish with the medley of movie music from “Star Wars” and “Frozen,” each of which evokes the emotion conveyed on film.