The Hope College Symphonette will anticipate the group's forthcoming spring tour with a "prelude concert" on Wednesday, March 15, at 8 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The Hope College Symphonette will anticipate the group's forthcoming spring tour with a "prelude concert" on Wednesday, March 15, at 8 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
Richard Piippo will be conducting four pieces,
ranging from Barber to Beethoven.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The evening will open with Tchaikovsky's "Cossack
Dance" from the opera "Mazeppa," a celebration of the
spirited dance of the people of southern Russia, famous as
horsemen and cavalrymen.
According to Piippo, the work "reflects
Tchaikovsky's range of character and technique, as well his
love of his country's folk music."
Mozart's "Exsultate, jubilate k.165" was written
in 1773 for the castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, when Mozart was
not yet 17. In form, the work is a miniature concert with
the first and second movements divided by a short
recitative. The performance will also feature soprano
vocalist Linda Dykstra. "Allelulia," the final movement,
has become one of the most popular of all of Mozart's vocal
works, Piippo noted.
The first half of the concert ends with Samuel
Barber's 1936 "Adagio for String Orchestra, Op.11."
According to Piippo, the piece is one of the most popular
American works for a string ensemble, and was written for
Barber's own string quartet.
Beethoven's "Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93"
comprises the second half of the concert. Written in 1812,
just five months after he finished his seventh symphony, the
piece came with more ease and speed than many of his other
compositions, Piippo said.
"His sketches, for the first three movements, are
extensive and continuous," Piippo said, "as might be
expected of a work so full of the relaxed joy of creation."
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located on the corner
of 12th Street and College Avenue on the Hope College
campus. The Symphonette's tour will run during the
college's spring break, and will include performances in
Michigan, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.