Department of Music

The Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra continues its 2009-10 Musical Postcards season with a program entitled “English Variations,” on Saturday, March 27, 8:00 p.m., at Old Cabell Hall on the UVa Grounds and Sunday, March 28, 3:30 p.m., at Monticello High School in Charlottesville.

The fourth masterworks concert of the season, conducted by Music Director Kate Tamarkin, hops the pond to Great Britain and pays homage to three titans of the English musical Renaissance.   Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” and Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” will be performed in reverse chronological order.

Wachovia – A Wells Fargo Company is the corporate sponsor of both performances.

Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide,” composed in 1946, bears the alternate title “Variations on a Theme of Henry Purcell.”  Purcell was the greatest English composer of the Baroque period, if not the greatest until Britten.  While written for the young, it holds a rare appeal for listeners of all ages.

The “Tallis Fantasia,” as it has come to be known, is perhaps Ralph Vaughan Williams’ best -known composition and possibly the most representative work in English music for the first half of the twentieth century.  Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585) served as organist at Canterbury Cathedral and, later, in Elizabeth I’s Chapel Royal.  The piece is written for three string ensembles: double string orchestras and a solo string quartet.  The physical positioning of the two orchestras highlight an antiphonal effect common in Vaughan Williams’ music.

As an unusual addition to the program, the UVa Chamber Singers, conducted by their director, Michael Slon, will precede the orchestra’s performance with Tallis’s 1567 psalm tune “Why fumeth in flight” upon which the Fantasia is based.  Founded in 2005, the UVa Chamber Singers is a select ensemble drawn from the larger University Singers.   It performs a wide variety of music for chamber choir ranging from early music to contemporary compositions.

The “Enigma Variations” catapulted Edward Elgar to fame both in his own country and on the European continent.  Each of the fourteen variations is a brilliant character sketch, titled with either a monogram or a nickname that identifies one of his friends.

For those who want to “know the score before they go,” free pre-concert lectures will be held 45 minutes before each concert on both days.  Saturday’s lecture will take place in Minor Hall.

Sunday’s lecture will be held in the Forum at Monticello High School.  Both will be presented by Mcintire Department of Music Associate Professor Richard Will.

“Noon Notes,” a popular free lecture series by Music Director Kate Tamarkin, will be offered on Friday, March 26, at 12:00 p.m. in the Northside Branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.  Ms. Tamarkin observes, “One of the joys of being a music director is spreading the news about symphonic music.  This passion extends to listeners of all ages.  The idea is not to present the most information about a piece of music, but to find the right information to whet the listener’s musical appetite and to heighten his or her experience in the concert hall.” 

Richard Will adds, “I count the pre-concert lectures among the most rewarding presentations that I do, and also the most challenging.  While not necessarily trained in music, the audience is extremely knowledgeable about history and culture, and many have been attending orchestra concerts for a very long time.  The trick, therefore, is to introduce the program in a way that engages them intellectually without pre-supposing any formal study of music, and that helps them to appreciate something new about even the most familiar pieces.”

Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street, on Saturday night and at the high school on Sunday afternoon.

Tickets are priced at $35, $30, $25 and $20 for adults, and $10 for students.  UVa students may request one complimentary ticket in advance.  Tickets may be purchased at the University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, in the lobby of the Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or on-line at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.

The final date in the Musical Postcards season is “The New World” on April 24-25 when the orchestra returns to America with works by Samuel Barber, Judith Shatin and Antonin Dvorák.