North State Symphony: Resurrection — Sublime Voices
Sat., Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. • Cascade Theatre, Redding
Sun., Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. • Laxson Auditorium, Chico
On Saturday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov.18 at 2 p.m., Kyle Wiley Pickett will lead the North State Symphony in Redding and Chico concerts that are as ambitious and wide-ranging as any in music. One evening-long-work constitutes the entire concert, the Second Symphony by Gustav Mahler, who wrote, “the symphony should be like the world: it must embrace everything.”
Mahler practiced this all-encompassing belief by including in his symphony music that ranges from passionate to innocent, and from simple to profound. Mahler lived in an era when the symphony orchestra grew to the largest size it has ever attained, and in the North State Symphony performance some 84 musicians will squeeze onto the stages of Redding’s Cascade Theatre and Laxson Auditorium in Chico.
Mahler’s Second Symphony is called his “Resurrection” Symphony. Mahler was as widely familiar with religion as with music, and the spiritual text which is sung by both soloists and chorus in the Second Symphony shows a universal longing for the divine.
Mahler was inspired by Beethoven in writing his Second Symphony. Like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Second has a large chorus, which sings with the orchestra in the work’s finale. Joining the North State Symphony will be the CSU, Chico University Choir, conducted by David Scholz, the Shasta College Community Chorale, conducted by Elizabeth Waterbury and the Simpson University Chorus, conducted by Hoffman Pereira.
Also performing are two professional vocal soloists, Elizabeth Madsen Bradford and Joyce Parry Moore. Elizabeth Madsen Bradford lives in Portland, Or, and has sung with the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera and the Juneau (AK) Symphony. Joyce Parry Moore, now a resident of Berkeley, lived until recently in Juneau Alaska, where she performed several times with the Juneau Symphony under the baton of Kyle Wiley Pickett.
Music Director Pickett leads a discussion of the Mahler Second Symphony one hour before each performance. The talk is free to ticket-holders. For more information, call 898-5984.
Tickets for North State Symphony concerts are available in Chico at the University Box Office, 898-6333, and in Redding at the Cascade Theatre, 243-8877.