Seth Grosshandler
Frank Siegel
Alan Murray
The Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra (GNSO) will perform a special concert on Saturday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Aquinas Hall on the Mount Saint Mary College campus in Newburgh, with all tickets priced at $25. “The One & the Many,” under the direction of Maestro Russell Ger, will feature the works of composing giants Mozart, Beethoven and Ravel performed by three soloists.
This special concert represents a unique partnership between the GNSO and Moxart, Inc., a Philadelphia-area non-profit organization whose mission is to provide musicians with opportunities that would otherwise not be available. Mozart’s Concerto Program enables the musicians (any instrument) to play a concerto with a fine orchestra. When Moxart’s initial programs in the Philadelphia area were over-subscribed, they reached out to the GNSO, which was delighted to respond positively. The soloists in March are Alan Murray, Frank Siegel and Seth Grosshandler.
“A concerto is any piece for solo instrumentalist and orchestra and usually consists of three movements,” said Ger. “One of the hallmarks of a concerto is the dialogue between the group (orchestra) and the individual (soloist). Sometimes it is cooperative, sometimes competitive and sometimes an outright confrontation,” he noted.
“The three concerti in the program are a study in contrasts,” Ger continued. “Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 begins with mood and atmosphere, but no theme to speak of. This is Mozart the dramatist, a composer of the theatre, deftly manipulating our expectations by fulfillment and denial. Beethoven takes a different tack. His Piano Concerto No. 4 eschews the traditional orchestral introduction and opens with a delicate piano, all alone. The middle movement begins with the strings pounding a heavy rhythm which the piano gently seeks to smooth and assuage. Little by little, the strings succumb until their rage is quelled. Ravel’s glittering Piano Concerto in G owes much to the obsession with jazz in Paris of the 1920s. Gentle, lonely, melancholy and ecstatic all at once, the middle movement is one of the most beautiful and moving passages of music you will ever hear.”
All tickets for this special concert are $25 and can be purchased online or at the door.
Call 845/913-7157 or visit newburghsymphony.org. Students are admitted free to Open seating. The snow date for the concert is Sunday, March 24, at 4 p.m.