From Wellesley Symphony Orchestra:

Wellesley Symphony Orchestra performs its next concert on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 3pm, and will feature three jazzy preludes by Gershwin, as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, and opera selections.

Soprano and Wellesley native Elaine Daiber will join music director Max Hobart for works by Gounod, Dvorak, Puccini, and Mozart in her third appearance with the orchestra. Board President Leslie Holmes will give a pre-concert talk at 2:15pm.

This past summer, Daiber joined the Bard Music Festival in a recital celebrating composer Erich Korngold and appeared with the New York Festival of Song as an Emerging Artist. In the 2019/2020 season, engagements include debuts as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo in Boston’s Jordan Hall and Lady in Waiting in Britten’s Gloriana with Odyssey Opera, as well as a Boston Symphony Orchestra Prelude Concert of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers.

Brahms wrote his Symphony No. 2 in the summer of 1877 while staying on Lake Wörth in southern Austria, an area that he said was so full of melodies that one had to be careful not to step on them. The symphony is often thought of as sunny, but he teased a friend by calling it dirge-like and saying that it should be printed with a black border. The success of his first symphony, twenty years in the writing, allowed him the confidence to produce the second in a much shorter time. It employs a tune famously known as “Brahms’ lullaby.” The piece is in four movements: Allegro non troppo, Adagio non troppo, Allegretto grazioso, and Allegro con spirito.

The performance is at MassBay Community College, 50 Oakland St. There is plenty of free parking. Tickets for the concert are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and students, and free for children under 12 and may be purchased at Wellesley Books, Andrews Pharmacy, on-line, and at the door. Call 781-235-0515 or visit www.wellesleysymphony.org.

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