Halloween Chills and Trills
Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 7:30 p.m.,
Cordiner Hall, Whitman College Campus
Get a map and directions to Cordiner Hall
Mussorgsky—Night on Bald Mountain
Night on Bald Mountain was inspired by a short story by the Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol, in which witches would gather on Bald Mountain and hold Sabbath. The work was arranged after Mussorgsky’s death in 1881 by his friend, Rimsky-Korsakov. It was never performed in any form during Mussorgsky’s lifetime. The Rimsky-Korsakov edition premiered in 1886, and has since become a concert favorite.
Liszt—Totentanz (Death Dance), for piano & orchestra
Totentanz is notable for being based on the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae as well as for daring stylistic innovations. The Walla Walla Symphony plays this piece with Walla Walla favorite and Whitman College and The Juilliard School graduate, Stephen Beus.
Watch Stephen play the 4th movement from Samuel Barber’s piano sonata.
Visit Stephen’s web site.
Berlioz—Symphonie Fantastique
Tuesday night’s program ends with Berlioz’s symphony, which tells the story of an artist gifted with a lively imagination who has poisoned himself with opium in the depths of despair because of hopeless love. Instead of the four movements, which were conventional for symphonies at the time of its composition in 1830, there are five.
Watch the NHK Symphony Tokyo play the Fifth Movement.
