Saturday, April 8, 2017

Symphony Summer Series


“The Flower of England: from the Empire through the Wars” is the theme of this year’s Richmond Symphony Summer Series, running from July 13 to Aug. 17 at Dominion Arts Center.

Six chamber concerts lasting about an hour will be staged on Thursday evenings in the fourth season of the series, presented by the symphony in association with Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. Members of the orchestra will perform with VCU and UR faculty musicians; the Aug. 3 program also will feature faculty from VCU’s Global Summer Institute of Music.

The concerts, at 6:30 p.m. in the Gottwald Playhouse of Dominion Arts Center, Sixth and Grace streets, will mix works by familiar names from English music – Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Britten, Delius – with pieces by less frequently heard composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Charles Villiers Stanford, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax, John Ireland and Eugene Goosens.

Subscription ticket prices for six concerts are $81 for adults, $60 for youths (18 and younger) and college students. Sampler subscriptions – three or more concerts at $16 each for adults, $11 each for youths and students – also are offered. Single tickets, which go on sale on May 8, are $18 for adults, $12 for youths and students.

Most concerts in past series have sold out in advance.

For more information, call the Richmond Symphony patron services desk at (804) 788-1212 or visit http://www.richmondsymphony.com

“The Flower of England” artists and programs:

July 13
Adrian Pintea, violin
Russell Wilson, piano
Vaughan Williams: “The Lark Ascending” (arr. for violin and piano)
Britten: Suite for violin and piano, Op. 6
Coleridge-Taylor: “Petite suite de concert,” Op. 77
Elgar: “Salut d’amour,” Op. 12

July 20
Susannah Klein, violin
Joanne Kong, piano
Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82
Bridge: “Norse Legend,” “Amaryllis,” “Souvenir,” “Heart’s Ease”
Ireland: “Summer Evening”
Thomas Pitfield: Violin Sonata in A major – Allegretto articulato and Scherzo

July 27
Schuyler Slack, cello
David Fisk, piano
Bridge: “Four Pieces”
Bax: “Folk Tale”
Delius: Romance for cello and piano
Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor

Aug. 3
Zachary Guiles, trombone
Yin Zheng, piano
Pascale Delache-Feldman, double-bass
Aleksandr Haskin, flute and piccolo
Elgar (arr. Sauer): “Chanson de nuit,” “Chanson de matin”
Holst: Concertante
Elgar: Duetto for double-bass and trombone
Elgar: “Salut d’amour” for trombone, piano and double-bass
Goosens: “Five Impressions of a Holiday” for flute, trombone and piano
Vaughan Williams: “Suite de ballet” for flute and piano
Ian Clarke: “The Great Train Race,” “Zoom Tube” for solo flute
Britten: “Ploughboy” for trombone, piano and piccolo

Aug. 10
David Lemelin, clarinet
Magdalena Adamek, piano
Gerald Finzi: “Five Bagatelles,” Op. 23
Charles Villiers Stanford: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 129
Bridge: “Three Miniature Pastorales”
Joseph Horowitz: Sonatina

Aug. 17
Shawn Welk, oboe & English horn
Richard Becker, piano
Britten: “Six Metamorphoses after Ovid” – “Pan,” “Arethusa”
Edmund Rubbra: Oboe Sonata in C major, Op. 100
Tobias Matthay: “Three Lyric Studies” for piano
Vaughan Williams (arr. Stanton): “Six Studies in English Folk-Song” for English horn and piano
Thomas F. Dunhill: “Three Short Pieces,” Op. 81
Goosens: “Concerto in One Movement,” Op. 45 (arr. for oboe and piano)