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KSO season finalé features Elgar, Paganini
Stephanie Burdette - Thu, May, 15, 2008
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Lucas Richman will perform the final concert of the 2007-2008 season Thursday and Friday, May 22 and 23.
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The concerts, sponsored by BB&T, will take place at 8 p.m. at the Tennessee Theatre and will feature the music of Edward Elgar and Nicolò Paganini.
“We will conclude this season with a special celebration marking the 150th anniversary of Edward Elgar’s birthday,” says Richman. “His “Enigma Variations” set the bar for the next century of English composers, as few could aspire to the depth of beauty portrayed in the famous “Nimrod” sequence alone. We also nod to Elgar’s musical beginnings as a violinist, by presenting one of the most dazzling works in the violin repertoire, Paganini’s devilish ‘Violin Concerto No. 1.’”
The orchestra opens with Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance No. 4,” composed in 1907. Known for his marches, Elgar commented: “I have some of the soldier instinct in me … I do know we are a nation of great military proclivities, and I do not see why the ordinary quick march should not be treated on a large scale in the way that the waltz, the old-fashion slow march, and even the polka have been treated by the great
composers.”
Violinist Ilya Kaler joins the orchestra on stage to perform Paganini’s moving “Violin Concerto No. 1.” Kaler is the only violinist ever to win Gold Medals at all three of the world’s most prestigious competitions: the Tchaikovsky, the Sibelius and the Paganini. He has been compared to the likes of Jascha Heifetz and Itzhak Perlman. He served as distinguished professor of music at Indiana University School of Music from 2001 to 2003, and recently has been appointed professor of violin at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago.
The evening concludes with Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” The work is comprised of 14 variations, each based on a family member or close friend identified by either initials or personal nicknames.
Tickets to the concert begin at $20.50 and may be purchased by logging on to the KSO Web site, www.knoxvillesymphony.com, or by calling the KSO Box Office at 865-291-3310.
Formally established in 1935, the KSO consists of 84 virtuoso musicians under the leadership of Maestro Lucas Richman. The symphony performs more than 250 times each year throughout the region to a total audience of more than 160,000.
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