Rhode Island Philharmonic Performs Holst's THE PLANETS with Guest Conductor Michael Christie Tonight

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra's season continues Saturday October 19, when Music Director LARRY RACHLEFF welcomes guest conductor MICHAEL CHRISTIE for a program featuring Gustav Holst's The Planets and the Schumann Cello Concerto, featuring cellist COLIN CARR in a return engagement. The concert takes place Saturday October 19 at 8:00pm at The Vets, 1 Avenue of the Arts in Providence.

Resident Conductor FRANCISCO NOYA presents an informal talk about the concert program in the auditorium before the concert from 7:00?7:25. WPRO News Talk 630 is the media sponsor for the season. Tickets ($15-100) are available at www.riphil.org/tickets, and at the RIPO box office: 401.248.7000.

The Amica Rush Hour performance, featuring a full performance of The Planets, is tonight, October 18 at The Vets, 6:30pm.

Music director LARRY RACHLEFF said: "We welcome to the podium for the first time MICHAEL CHRISTIE, my friend and colleague, former music director of the Phoenix Symphony, to conduct Robert Schumann's romantic Cello Concerto and one of the top ten works for symphony orchestra, Gustav Holst's The Planets. As music director of Minnesota Opera, he brings his theatrical sensibility to The Planets. He's made it an important part of his career, performing The Planets all over this planet."

Guest conductor MICHAEL CHRISTIE is equally at home in the symphonic and the opera worlds. He began his tenure as the first-ever Music Director of the Minnesota Opera with the 2012-13 season. He served as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-2013), Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-2010) and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-2004) in Australia, with guest appearances with Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in March 2007 when he stepped in on short notice for an ailing Ricardo Muti. Internationally, he has conducted the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Sydney, Tasmanian, and Western Australian Symphonies and Opera Queensland, in Perth.

Rachleff added: "The piece vaulted Holst to international fame: his curiosity about astrology led to this hour-long work for a huge orchestra, with military band sounds, glorious string writing and active percussion noise. It's miraculous, depicting the symbolism of each planet from the war-torn fire of Mars to the beautiful tunes of the large Jupiter to eerie, dark Neptune, with women's chorus offstage to create this tremendous ethereal nature. A live performance of The Planets is a real happening, it's so compelling."

Rachleff continued: "Our old friend COLIN CARR is back, the great English cellist who's played Saint-Saens and Elgar with us. A poetic player, Colin brings his unique fire and intensity to Schumann's very dramatic work."

Cellist COLIN CARR appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. He has performed with major orchestras worldwide and has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms. He has performed several cycles of the Bach Solo Suites at venues including Wigmore Hall in London, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Gardner Museum in Boston. He appears at chamber music festivals worldwide and is often a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York's Chamber Music Society. He has won many prestigious international awards including First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award and Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. His most recent appearance with the Philharmonic was in November 2005.

The women of The Providence Singers join the orchestra for the Neptune movement of The Planets. Now beginning their 42nd season, Christine Noel's first as artistic director, The Providence Singers will perform twice more with the Philharmonic this season: Handel'sMessiah on December 7 and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe on May 10.

The Philharmonic's season features eight Classical concerts on Saturday nights at Vets. Four are preceded by Amica Rush Hour concerts on Friday, and four have Friday Open Rehearsals. The Amica Rush Hour Series offers an early start time - 6:30pm - on four Fridays (October 18, November 15, March 21, April 11). These shorter, informal, accessible concerts feature full performances of select repertoire from theSaturday Classical concerts. Four Open Rehearsals, on Fridays at 5:30pm (September 20, January 17, February 21, May 9), offer insight into the collaboration between the conductor, guest artists and orchestra musicians as they prepare for the upcoming classical concert. Special events include the perennial holiday favorite Handel's Messiah with the Providence Singers on Saturday, December 7. Subscriptions are on sale now. Please call the Philharmonic box office at 401.248.7000, or visit www.riphil.org/tickets.

THE PLANETS: at-a-glance

CONDUCTOR: Michael Christie, guest conductor

SOLOIST: Colin Carr, cello

The Women of The Providence Singers

SCHUMANN HOLST: Concerto, Violoncello, op.129, A minor The Planets

WHERE: The Vets: Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 1 Avenue of the Arts in Providence, RI

WHEN: Saturday October 19 at 8:00pm

AMICA RUSH HOUR performance: Friday October 18 at 6:30pm

HOLST The Planets (in its entirety)

GUEST ARTIST SPONSORS: Ms. Lisa Bisaccia and Robert Naparstek, MD

TICKETS: $15 to $100, with discounts for students and groups in selected sections

Online: www.riphil.org/tickets, 24/7

By phone: Philharmonic box office: 401.248.7000; Monday-Friday 9?4:30

In person: Philharmonic box office, Carter Center, 667 Waterman Street, East Providence: Monday-Friday 9?4:30OR Vets box office, Avenue of the Arts, Providence: concert Friday 2?5:30pm; concert Saturday 3:30?8pm

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: stories behind the music

Schumann, Cello Concerto in A Minor, op.129

Music therapy or a cry for help? The Cello Concerto of was one of Robert Schumann's (1810-1856) last major works. Happy about his new position as music director in Düsseldorf, Schumann felt "urgent desires to compose" and quickly wrote the concerto. Before long, gripped by serious doubts about his work, he tinkered with it as he became increasingly depressed and dysfunctional. In 1854, he jumped into the Rhine River, was saved, and was committed to the mental institution at Endenich; he died two years later, and the concerto never received a premiere during his lifetime.

Holst, The Planets: Studying the skies: In a letter to a friend in 1913, Gustav Holst (1874-1934) revealed a growing interest: "As a rule I only study things that suggest music to me. That's why I worried at Sanskrit. Then recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me, and I have been studying astrology fairly closely."

Failure to launch: Earning his living as a music teacher at St. Paul's Girls School in England, the only time Holst could only compose on weekends and holidays; it took him two years to finish The Planets. It was not until 1918 that conductor Balfour Gardiner arranged a private reading, using German prisoners of war to fill out the orchestra. The Planets would have to wait till after the war for its premiere.

Portraits of each planet: When the audience of 1918 heard the clamor of Mars, they were sure Holst was describing the war then going on, but Holst had composed it before World War I began in August 1914. Through relentless rhythms come wave on wave of brassy, percussive presentments driving finally to a dissonant finish marked fortississimo (ƒƒƒƒ). Venus opens in a mood of placid coolness, and gently rocking repetitions quietly close the movement. Mercury's fleet juxtaposition of unusual chord outlines whisks the music along, while shifting accents and mixed rhythms add extra vivacity.

Way out there: Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote of Neptune: "The strange chords in Neptune make our 'moderns' sound like milk and water. Yet these chords never seem 'wrong,' nor are they incongruous.... "

In the United States, The Planets is Holst's most popular work.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School is the largest fully integrated orchestra and music school in the United States. Our mission is to enrich and transform Rhode Island and our region through great music performance and education.

2013-2014 is the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra's 69th Season, Music Director Larry Rachleff's 18th with the Orchestra. The season includes an eight-concert Classical Series with a roster of world-renowned guest artists that includes pianists Alon Goldstein, Cecile Licad, Jean-Philippe Collard and Robert Levin, violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Philippe Quint, cellist Colin Carr, and guest conductor Michael Christie. Our Amica Rush Hour Series offers an early start time -6:30pm- on four Fridays (October 18, November 15, March 21, April 11). These shorter, informal, accessible classical concerts feature full performances of select repertoire from the Saturday Classical concerts. Our four Open Rehearsals, on Fridays at 5:30pm (September 20, January 17, February 21, May 9), offer audience members insight into the collaboration between the conductor, guest artists and orchestra musicians as they prepare for the upcoming classical concert. Special events include the perennial holiday favorite Handel's Messiah with the Providence Singers on Saturday, December 7 at 7:00pm. Resident Conductor Francisco Noya conducts Handel's Messiah, our Education Concerts and our Summer Pops Concerts.

Now in its 26th year, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School serves approximately 1,500 children, youth and adults every week with lessons, classes, ensembles, and community partnership programs, and an additional 13,000 students annually through partnerships, residencies, education concerts and in-school performances. Ensembles include five youth orchestras, two wind ensembles, eleven jazz ensembles and many chamber music ensembles and the RI Philharmonic Community Orchestra for adults. Information is available at www.riphil.org.

Tickets may be purchased 24/7 on the Philharmonic website: www.riphil.org/tickets. Tickets may also be purchased at the Philharmonic box office at 667 Waterman Avenue, East Providence, by phone (401.248.7000) or in person Monday-Friday 9am-4:30pm. On Open Rehearsal and Rush Hour Fridays, ticket sales are also available at The Vets box office, from 2:00pm until showtime. On Saturday concert days, tickets are available onsite at The Vets box office from 3:30pm until showtime, or by calling 401.248.7000.

Ticket prices range from $15 to $100 for adults, with discounts in selected areas of the hall for full-time students and groups. Rush Hour concert tickets range from $15 to $50. Additional facilities and handling fees apply. Tickets for Open Dress Rehearsals are $15, inclusive of fees. There is free parking for all Philharmonic concerts at designated lots along Smith Street. For Saturday evening concerts, the Philharmonic provides a free shuttle bus to and from the parking lots before and after the concerts. Also for Saturday evening concerts, valet parking is available at the front door of The Vets, for a cash fee of $20.

Photo Credit: Krista Campbell