The Bach Festival Perform Works By Nielsen, Oroff 4/18, 19

The Bach Festival Society closes its Season of Love and War with a romantic Spring program featuring a variety of works. The Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra will perform Carl Nielsen’s Hymnus Amoris and selections from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The orchestra will also perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture. The two performances take place Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 19 at 3 p.m. in Knowles Memorial Chapel at Rollins College. Tickets range from $20 to $50, depending on seat location.

To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Box Office at 407.646.2182 or visit www.bachfestivalflorida.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the door 30 minutes prior to the performance, subject to availability.

Danish composer Carl Nielsen was inspired to write Hymnus Amoris while on his honeymoon in 1896. This romantic piece will feature the Bach Festival Youth Choir in its first performance with the Bach Choir and Orchestra. The text of Hymnus Amoris, or Hymn of Love, chronicles love at every phase of life, starting at childhood and going through old age. The opening of the piece, featuring muted trumpets and the voices of youth, carries listeners back to childhood, with subsequent sections taking us forward through life. In its intensely personal approach, Nielsen’s piece is illustrative of romanticism in music.

No composer’s music is more romantic than Sergei Rachmaninoff’s. His lavish compositions sweep you away and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a classic example. Played by one of Florida’s most prominent pianists, Dr. Gloria Cook, this piece for piano and orchestra is one of the most extravagant works in the repertoire. Soprano Sharla Nafziger will also perform Rachmaninoff’s dearly loved Vocalise.

As an additional treat for the audience, the Bach Festival Choir and Youth Choir will perform excerpts from Carmina Burana, a piece they will be performing in its entirety with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Daytona Beach International Festival. That performance will take place Saturday, May 2 at 8 p.m. at the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach.

The Bach Festival Society, located in Winter Park, Florida, is one of the longest continuously operating Bach Festivals in the country and among America’s great oratorio societies. The Bach Festival Society brings the highest caliber of classical music to Central Florida. Performances are held in the intimate settings of Tiedtke Concert Hall and Knowles Memorial Chapel on the beautiful campus of Rollins College.

For more information regarding the current season or to order tickets, please call the Bach Festival Society at 407.646.2182 or visit us online at www.bachfestivalflorida.org.

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