originally published: 07/25/2024
(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- The Plainfield Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of its acclaimed music director Charles Prince, has announced its 105th season filled with timeless classics, rare opportunities to hear some less performed pieces as well as music for our time.
The season-opening concert, on October 5, 2024, is entitled “Brahms and Out of the Ordinary.” Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1, Op.25 had its premiere in Hamburg in 1861. Schoenberg, a devotee of the music of Brahms, orchestrated the work in 1937. He takes a piece written for four musicians and transforms it into a work for a large orchestra. Also on the program is the Pandemic Suite by contemporary composer Christian Pollack. The three movements originally came from material he composed as “Interludes” for his not-yet-performed opera, The Witch of the Mill, and portray feelings and pictures that occur in the Opera.
An “Americana Pops Concert” will be held on November 2, 2024, featuring tunes by Leroy Anderson, Duke Ellington, Rogers and Hammerstein, Scott Joplin, Stephen Sondheim, John Philip Sousa, and more. Audience favorite tenor soloist Brian Cheney will be returning.
The “Annual Free Family Concert” will be held on January 25, 2025.
On March 15, 2025, “Loss and Renewal” will include the Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder) by Richard Strauss (his last work), with soprano soloist Tanisha Feliciano. Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 by Jean Sibelius is a work in three movements and like many of his works, focuses on the national pride of Finland through its natural surroundings.
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The concluding concert will be a “Respighi Festival” on April 26, 2025. Works by Ottorino Respighi will include his Ancient Airs and Dances, a suite freely transcribed from original pieces for lute; Concerto Gregoriano, an elegiac work for violin and orchestra built on motifs from Gregorian chant featuring soloist Michael Avagliano; and Pines of Rome, the composer's tribute to scenes around his country's capital, some modern and some recalling the glory of the Roman Empire.
Join them for their upcoming season as we experience old favorites and are introduced to pieces that are less frequently heard as well as newly composed.
Season tickets for the 2024-2025 concerts are now on sale and are available for purchase online. Tickets may also be purchased at the concert. Subscription concerts are held at the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church located at 716 Watchung Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey.
The Plainfield Symphony is New Jersey's oldest community symphony and the third oldest in the country
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BlowUpRadio.com's New & Notable NJ Music 9/16/24
Lazlo, founder of BlowUpRadio.com (an online radio station based around New Jersey artists), shines a light on some of the many new releases from NJ based musicians each week with this column. This week Lazlo takes a look at new releases by Dodgeball, John Gilman, Wiser Time, Tiny Ships, Sean Faust, Nick and the Leg Heavy Boys, Ali Zanders, and nobody anonymous. Plus a look back at "Start of Something Good" by The Extras, Inc.
