The Wichita State University Symphony Orchestra will feature faculty soloists Nicholas Smith, horn, and Paul Brodene Smith, tenor, in concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, in Wilner Auditorium. The program, which includes music by Schumann, Britten and Walton, will be led by Mark Laycock.
Tickets are $7 with discounts available through the College of Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.
Smith and Smith will perform Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, a moving work featuring poetry from such masters as Tennyson, Blake and Keats. The song cycle, composed in 1943, consists of six movements — Pastoral, Nocturne, Elegy, Dirge, Hymn and Sonnet — framed by a prologue and epilogue, both for unaccompanied horn.
The orchestra will also perform Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in Eb Major (“Rhenish”); the last of the composer’s four symphonies, it was the third to be published. Schumann wrote the piece in late 1850, shortly after moving to Dusseldorf to accept the post of municipal music director. The Rhine River provided inspiration, as did nearby Cologne Cathedral, said to be the impetus behind the solemn, majestic fourth movement.
William Walton’s “Portsmouth Point Overture” will open the program. One of England’s most versatile composers, Walton contributed significant works to a number of genres: symphony, concerto, choral music, opera, film music. Composed when Walton was just 24, the overture was inspired by an 1817 waterfront print by English caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson.
The 2010-11 WSU Symphony Orchestra concert season, featuring Hartman Arena appearances with the classic rock band Kansas and Video Games Live, will culminate in a concert May 28 at Carnegie Hall with the WSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
