February 1, 2022
Against a background of programming modifications and cancellations by other Bay Area performing arts orgs, California Symphony staff and musicians worked together to give wings to January concerts, TAKE FLIGHT. When All Negatives Add Up to a Positive Over four days of rehearsals and performances and after many dozens of COVID tests, musicians, staff, and…
January 12, 2022
A flight of fancy inspired by the great outdoors, the music on this program evokes soaring larks, clucking hens, a mystical swan, and the wafting sounds of birdsong from the Bohemian countryside. California Symphony presents TAKE FLIGHT at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 7:30pm and Sunday, Jan. 30…
December 21, 2021
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) The Lark Ascending (1914/1921) Nostalgic longing permeates The Lark Ascending. Not a cozy nostalgia that looks back to a rose-tinted past, but rather a spiritual fervor for an idyllic paradise, expressed as the song of a soaring skylark and, on the earth below, human life—a poignant metaphor for our collective yearning…
September 9, 2021
Marianna Martines (1744–1812) Sinfonia (Overture) in C Major (1770) The name Marianna Martines might not be familiar to modern music lovers, but the names of those in her circle most likely are: composers Joseph Haydn, Johann Adolph Hasse, and Giuseppe Bonno, Vienna court poet Metastasio, English critic and musical gadly Charles Burney, Empress Maria Theresa…
December 29, 2018
Concertmaster and soloist in January’s TAKE FLIGHT Jennifer Cho talks with us about playing The Lark Ascending, about her life outside of music (with her 14 feathery friends), and why performing over a swamp isn’t necessarily the greatest idea. This article was originally published in December 2018. Updated January 2022. As Concertmaster, the audience is used to seeing…
