Don’t miss your opportunity to see the gold medal winning Wellesley High School Honors Chamber Orchestra, along with the Wellesley High School Symphonia, perform live on Tuesday, November 15, 7pm. The concert is free and will take place at the Katherine Babson Auditorium at Wellesley High School, 50 Rice Street.
The evening’s repertoire includes such pieces as Serenade for Strings in C major by Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky was composing this piece, thought to be one of the late Romantic era’s definitive compositions, at the same time he was composing the well-known, powerful 1812 Overture.
Oddly enough, the serenade is said to have accidentally accompanied the final countdown for the Manhattan Project’s Trinity nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945. A radio station was broadcasting the piece on the same frequency that was being used to transmit test communications.
The November 15 concert will also include Viola Concerto in G major by Telemann, showcasing soloist and Wellesley High senior Maeve Kelley. This is the first known concerto for viola. Telemann, a German Baroque composer, was almost completely self-taught and became a composer against his family’s wishes.
Nonetheless, Telemann was prolific and is considered to be one of the leading German composers of his time. Johann Sebastian Bach named Telemann the godfather and namesake of one of his sons. Telemann’s music is an important link between the late Baroque and early Classical styles.
Piano Concerto No. 21 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as the Elvira Madigan concerto, will be performed and will feature conductor Dr. Sergey Khanukaev as a soloist. Mozart’s father, Leopold Mozart, described the piece as “astonishingly difficult.” The difficulty lies less in the intricacy of the notes on the page than in playing those many notes smoothly and elegantly.
Neil Diamond’s 1972 song “Song Sung Blue” was based on a theme from the andante movement of the concerto, and an excerpt from the second movement was also featured in the James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
Come enjoy these and several other pieces on Tuesday November 15 and support Wellesley High’s talented teen classical musicians.
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