October 4, 2008

Central European Masters

Theresa Zale Bridges, oboe soloist

The Longview Symphony’s second season in LeTourneau University’s magnificent Belcher Center opens with a program of all “People’s Choice” requests by three of the greatest composers from Central Europe: three brilliant Slavonic Dances by the Bohemian master Antonín Dvořák, the melodious Oboe Concerto by the Austrian genius Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, and the irresistibly rhythmic and buoyant Symphony No. 7 by the German giant Ludwig van Beethoven. Our audiences have always enjoyed hearing soloists from within the orchestra’s own ranks and on this concert we feature our very talented principal oboist, Theresa Zale Bridges, in the Mozart Concerto.

*Dvořák: Three Slavonic Dances from Op. 46 and Op. 72
*Mozart:  Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314
*Beethoven:  Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

December 30, 2008

A Night at the Movies

Our annual pre-New Year’s celebration brings Hollywood to Longview in the form of music from some of your favorite films. Enjoy popular themes and excerpts from such classics as Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Ben-Hur, Gone With the Wind, The Sea Hawk, Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom of the Opera and many more.  It’s an evening sure to delight the entire family!

February 21, 2009

Celebrating American History

Bob Hallmark, narrator

The diversity of our own history and composers is celebrated in this special program, beginning with the late Armenian-American Alan Hovhaness’ Mysterious Mountain Symphony, a magical work commissioned and premiered by Leopold Stokowski in 1955. We are especially delighted to welcome Bob Hallmark of KLTV 7 News, as guest narrator in Aaron Copland’s stirring Lincoln Portrait, commemorating the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth this month. To honor February as African-American History Month we present 1996 Pulitzer Prize winner George Walker’s beautiful Lyric for Strings. George Gershwin’s popular masterpiece An American in Paris will bring the evening to a rousing close.

*Hovhaness:  Symphony No. 2, Op. 132, “Mysterious Mountain”
Copland:  Lincoln Portrait
Walker:  Lyric for Strings
*Gershwin:  An American in Paris

March 8, 2009

People’s Choice for the Piano

Chamber Music Concert
First United Methodist Church Longview

Our annual chamber music concert will feature pianist Ann Saslav and friends playing selections from the People’s Choice Poll as well as a few of their favorites.  Some of the selections will include:

*Beethoven:  Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight”
*Beethoven:  Piano Sonata No. 8 “Pathetique” 
*Chopin:  Polonaise Op. 53 in A flat major 
*Debussy:  Girl with the Flaxen Hair
* Debussy:  Clair de lune  

April 11, 2009

Russian Romantics

Chu-Fang Huang, piano soloist

Romantic music from Russia is beloved by audiences worldwide, and so we close the Longview Symphony’s 2008-09 season with selections from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, from which many melodies were used in the Broadway musical Kismet, and Prokofiev’s dramatic and lyrical ballet Romeo and Juliet. The brilliant young Chinese pianist Chu-Fang Huang was a Finalist in the most recent Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth and also First Prize winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2005. Her appearance here in Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 1 will surely be a memorable highlight of our “People’s Choice” season.

Borodin:  Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
*Prokofiev:  Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64ter
*Tchaikovsky:  Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23