Colorado Symphony hosts well-known artists in a diverse April line-up

March 29, 2011 - PRLog -- April at the Colorado Symphony features an array of concert events for all music lovers, including the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the virtuosity of violinist Itzhak Perlman in our hometown of Denver. April opens with "Classical Top 40," the latest installment in the Colorado Symphony's popular "Inside the Score" series featuring works by Ravel, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Pachelbel and much more. The excitement continues with "Carmina Burana" - one of the most undeniably riveting and wildly popular choral masterworks in the repertoire. Then, the inimitably glamorous Pink Martini brings its unique blend of elegant cocktail-hour fusion - crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop - to the Colorado Symphony Pops Series.

April continues with conductor Juanjo Mena and pianist Jorge Federico Osorio - two luminaries of the Spanish repertoire featured in a truly beautiful concert program. Then, resident conductor Scott O'Neil and associate concertmaster Claude Sim unite for the "heart's jewel" of violin concertos - the Mendelssohn. Easter weekend features Wagner's Prelude and "Good Friday Spell" from "Parsifal," with the sparkling concert centerpiece of Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." April at the Colorado Symphony concludes with Itzhak Perlman in concert, an event that promises to bring audiences to their feet.
Tickets for all concerts are now on sale at www.coloradosymphony.org and the Colorado Symphony Box Office: (303) 623-7876 or (877) 292-7979 or in-person in the lobby of Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

CLASSICAL TOP 40
ONE NIGHT ONLY! Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.
The Colorado Symphony's popular "Inside the Score" series continues with "Classical Top 40," a concert program replete with many of the most beautiful and admired masterworks in the repertoire. Designed for both seasoned veterans and those just discovering classical music, this immensely satisfying "Inside the Score" program highlights excerpts from works by Ravel, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Pachelbel and much more.

CARMINA BURANA
Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 3 at 2:30 p.m.
April at the Colorado Symphony opens with one of the most thrilling choral masterworks of all time: Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." Acclaimed conductor Antoni Wit, soprano Stacey Tappan, tenor Nicholas Phan, baritone Hyjng Yun, and the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Colorado Children's Chorale are featured in this all-star cast for two performances. Composed in 1837, "Carmina Burana" remains one of the most popular works in the classical music repertoire thanks to its universal appeal, risqué and provocative subject matter, and pure "rock concert appeal." Today, O Fortuna - the opening and closing to "Carmina Burana" - can be heard in films ranging from "Excalibur" to "Natural Born Killers" to "The Hunt for Red October," as well as dozens of action movie trailers and commercials.

PINK MARTINI
ONE NIGHT ONLY! Wednesday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
The Colorado Symphony Pops Series welcomes Pink Martini - a band that personifies a glamorous Hollywood sensibility and that has captivated audiences around the world. Latin music, jazz, cabaret, and a variety of other styles combine into a one-of-a-kind sound that is fresh and new.

RAVEL'S DAPHNIS & CHLOË
Friday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 10 at 2:30 p.m.
Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena has chosen to pair two great impressionistic works that conjure dreamy images of the Andaluz region: Turinas' "Danzas Fantásticas" and Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain," featuring Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio. Turina's three "Danzas Fantásticas" of 1920 - "Ecstasy," "Daydream" and "Revel" - were inspired by writings of the poet José Más that conjure the romance of Spain. The movements of Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" suggest the famous gardens of the Generalife (a 13th-century Moorish villa on a hillside overlooking the Alhambra in Granada), an imaginary garden that is the site of a spirited fiesta, and gardens in the mountains of Córdoba. Osorio - one of the great interpreters of Spanish piano music in the world - also performs solo works of Granados before the program concludes with Ravel's sensual ballet, "Daphnis and Chloë."

BRAHMS, MENDELSSOHN & BACH
Friday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Associate concertmaster Claude Sim performs one of the paramount violin concertos of all time - the Mendelssohn. In 1906, one of the 19th-century's greatest violinists and an ardent exponent of Mendelssohn's Concerto, Joseph Joachim, told the guests at a party in his honor, "The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, the one that makes the fewest concessions, is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms comes closest to Beethoven's in its seriousness. Max Bruch wrote the richest and most enchanting of the four. But the dearest of them all, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's." This enchanting program, led by resident conductor Scott O'Neil, also features the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 - a rarely heard transcription of music by Bach - as well as Brahms' tender Symphony No. 3. A work of such supreme mastery of all the musical elements, the Brahms' Third is a distillation of an almost infinite number of emotional states, not one of which can be adequately rendered in words.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.
This Eastertide program, led by conductor Andrew Grams, begins with Wagner's Prelude and "Good Friday Spell" from "Parsifal," an opera about the famous knight in search of the Holy Grail. "Parsifal," which Wagner called a "stage-consecration-festival play," is rich in philosophical allusion, mystical symbolism and historical reference. The "Good Friday Spell" comes in the opera's final act. Wagner said that the luminous orchestration of the Prelude was meant to convey "the character of cloud formations, which separate and then unite again." The program's centerpiece is Mendelssohn's sparkling "A Midsummer Night's Dream," featuring soprano Katherine Whyte and mezzo soprano Anita Krause, as well as actors reading from Shakespeare's comedy. Franz Liszt wrote of the "Midsummer Night's Dream" music, "Mendelssohn had a real capacity for depicting these enchanted elves, for interpolating in their caressing, chirping song the bray of the donkey without rubbing us the wrong way.... No musician was so equipped to translate into music the delicate yet, in certain externals, embarrassing sentimentality of the lovers; ... no one could paint as he did the rainbow dust, the mother-of-pearl shimmering of these sprites, could capture the brilliant ascent of a royal wedding feast."

ITZHAK PERLMAN
ONE NIGHT ONLY! Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to the irrepressible joy of making music, which he communicates. This incomparable musician and classical music personality never ceases to bring audiences to their feet every time he performs. Perlman joins resident conductor Scott O'Neil and the Colorado Symphony for a riveting program featuring Mozart's Violin Concerto
No. 3.

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Colorado Symphony is the region’s only full-time professional orchestra, performing in dowtown Denver at Boettcher Hall and across the Front Range. Presenting timeless music performed in new ways, the Colorado Symphony brings music to life.