The Vermont Philharmonic will seek to answer “Love’s Riddles” in two concerts on Saturday, February 17th at 7:30 PM at the Elley-Long Music Center at St Michael’s College and Sunday, February 18th at 2:00 PM at the Barre Opera House, with conductor & music director Lou Kosma.
The concert opens with the Overture and March from Carl Maria von Weber’s music for the play Turandot (not to be confused with Puccini’s opera of that name), in which the icy princess poses three riddles that a suitor must answer correctly in order to win her heart. Paul Hindemith uses this theme by von Weber as a subject for the big orchestral work that concludes the program, Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes of Carl Maria von Weber.
The winner of the 2024 Jon Borowicz Memorial Scholarship Competition is a gifted young violinist, Maaike Dam. She is a student of Ira Morris, and performs with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, Allstate and New England music festivals. A senior at St Johnsbury Academy, Maaike will perform the “Meditation” from Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher.
Vermont soprano Lisa Jablow will sing the five hauntingly beautiful Rückert Lieder by Gustav Mahler. The program also includes a 1990 work by Vermont composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, A Fanfare for Peace: The Lily and the Thorn.
Now in its 65th season, the Vermont Philharmonic has been making beautiful music since 1959. It is Vermont’s oldest community orchestra.