Love is on the air for Symphonies of Iowa and the wcfsymphony’s “Valentine Attraction” concert.
Passionate music of star-crossed lovers is the theme.
Joachim Raff’s Orchestral Prelude to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet opens the concert with a “meltingly beautiful central "love" section.” Sibelius’ nine movement incidental music to Maeterlinck's Pelleas et Mélisande is one of his most popular concert works.
University of Northern Iowa’s Vakhtang Kodanashvili joins the wcfsymphony on the second half to perform Rachmaninoff’s famous 18th variation from Rhapsody on A Theme of Paganini. The concert closes with the wcfsymphony performing Gershwin’s Catfish Row: Suite from Porgy and Bess.
Vakhtang Kodanashvili, instructor of piano at the University of Northern Iowa, received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance at Indiana University South Bend and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at Michigan State University College of Music. Beginning his musical education at age six, Vakhtang had his orchestral debut at the age of nine. Since then, he has performed with numerous symphony orchestras around the world.
Tune in on Sunday, March 24th at 4 p.m. and again on Monday, March 25th at 7 p.m. to hear the wcfsymphony’s “Valentine Attraction” concert.
PROGRAM
JOACHIM RAFF Prelude to Romeo and Juliet, WoO 51
JEAN SIBELIUS Pelleas et Mélisande, Op. 46
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on A Theme of Paganini, Op. 43: Variation 18
GEORGE GERSWHIN Catfish Row: Suite from Porgy and Bess
Special Appearances
Vakhtang Kodanashvili, piano
Jason Weinberger, conductor
