The
Las Vegas Philharmonic will present an orchestral salute to President John F.
Kennedy on Saturday, November 23rd when it performs “Love of Country” in
Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30PM. The second half of the concert will be a
performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 known as the
“Eroica” which is Italian for “Heroic.”
The concert will be conducted by Steven Jarvi. Tickets are priced from $25 to $94 and are
available from The Smith Center box office, phone 702.749.2000 or online from
lvphil.org.
The
day before the concert, Friday, November 22nd, marks the 50th anniversary of
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
To honor his call to Americans to “ask not what your country can do for
you – ask what you can do for your country,” the Las Vegas Philharmonic will
also pay tribute to servicemen and women, past and present at the concert.
Beethoven’s
“Eroica” Symphony is considered to have changed people’s perceptions of what a
symphony could be by capturing the human experience in music. Written in 1804 the work’s second movement
titled Funeral March is a poignant expression of grief, both public and
personal. A moving evocation of loss and
grief, the symphony then transforms into a message of hope. This will be the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s
first performance of a Beethoven symphony in Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center,
where it is a resident company.
Beethoven’s
“Eroica” As Requiem
The
Las Vegas Philharmonic’s choice of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony to commemorate
JFK is not unprecedented. On the day
that the President was shot, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Erich
Leinsdorf were performing an afternoon concert that was also being broadcast
live on the radio. News had spread
before the concert that President Kennedy had been shot. During the first half of the concert, his
death was confirmed. Orchestra officials
backstage had the librarians pull orchestra parts for the second movement of
Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Leinsdorf relayed the sad news to the audience and
then led the BSO in a tribute to the fallen leader. (You can read about this
moment and hear the announcement and performance online at WQXR here.)
“Music
has long provided people with solace and the means to mourn collectively and
also to heal together. Beethoven’s
“Eroica” is a true masterwork and an apt way to not only commemorate past
losses but also to celebrate the present and offer hope and joy for our
future,” says Las Vegas Philharmonic President & CEO, Jeri Crawford.
Musical
Tributes to JFK
Orchestral
works composed to honor John F. Kennedy feature in the first half of the
concert, including a contemporary work by Peter Lieberson called Remembering
JFK: ”An American Elegy” commissioned for the 50th anniversary of JFK’s
inauguration and premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra on that occasion
at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The
piece incorporates excerpts from three of JFK’s speeches and the Las Vegas
Philharmonic has invited former U.S. Senator and Governor for Nevada Richard
Bryan as the guest narrator.
“Love
of Country” opens with the short but powerful Fanfare for the Inauguration of
John F. Kennedy by Leonard Bernstein that was first performed at President
Kennedy’s inauguration gala concert in 1961, a concert that was organized by
Frank Sinatra. Bernstein, who was the
Music Director of the New York Philharmonic at the time of Kennedy’s
Presidency, was deeply affected by his death.
He dedicated his just-completed “Kaddish” Symphony to Kennedy and in the
days immediately following the assassination, led a performance of Mahler’s
“Resurrection” Symphony in his honor. At
a tribute held at Madison Square Garden he declared: “This will be our reply to
violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than
ever before.”
A
work by Pulitzer Prize winner George Walker – the only living composer on the
program – called Lyric for Strings, also features in the first half. Full program notes for the concert are
available online at lvphil.org.
Guest
conductor, Steven Jarvi, will present a pre-concert conversation in Reynolds
Hall at 6:45PM open to all ticketholders.
Mr. Jarvi is the Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, Music
Director of Winter Opera Saint Louis and the Music Director of the St. Louis
Symphony Youth Orchestra. In February he
conducted the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s “Mardi Gras in Las Vegas” concert and is
a candidate for the open Music Director position.
Tickets
The
Las Vegas Philharmonic offers a 10% military discount on all concert tickets to
active service men and women and veterans. The
Las Vegas Philharmonic offers $25 tickets for balcony seating at all of its
2013-14 season concerts. Seats in other
sections are priced $46, $64 and $94.
Tickets are available from The Smith Center Box Office, phone
702.749.2000 or online from lvphil.org.
A 50% student discount is available on all single ticket purchases (ID
required.) Group sales are available by
calling the Las Vegas Philharmonic.
Saturday,
November 23, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Masterworks
Series II: LOVE OF COUNTRY
Pre-concert
conversation 6:45 p.m.
Las
Vegas Philharmonic
Steven
Jarvi, conductor
Richard
Bryan, narrator
PROGRAM:
BERNSTEIN Fanfare for the Inauguration
of JFK
WALKER Lyric for Strings
LIEBERSON Remembering JFK, “An American
Elegy”
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major,
Op. 55, “Eroica”
Tickets
$25, $46, $64 & $94 available from The Smith Center Box Office, phone
702.749.2000 or online at lvphil.org.
Bus
Service
The
Las Vegas Philharmonic offers shuttle buses to The Smith Center from Summerlin
(Starbright Theatre, 2215 Thomas Ryan Blvd) and Henderson (Anthem Center at
Independence Center 2460 Hampton Road.)
Bus passes must be purchased in advance and can be obtained when
purchasing concert tickets, or by calling The Smith Center Patron Services at
702.749.2000. Each bus pass costs $15
roundtrip per concert.
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