By Oregon Coast TODAY
The Newport Symphony continues its concert season this weekend with “Utterly Transported,” featuring internationally renowned violinist Benjamin Baker on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 2-3.
The concert begins with a 21st-Century composition by Jessie Montgomery, “Hymn for Everyone.” The piece was co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony and Music Academy of the West as a musical response to the COVID pandemic and the resulting social upheaval.
“I was in a moment of reflection,” said Montgomery, “and feeling like I wanted to express something that was natural, and maybe lingering… that hadn’t been expressed yet.”
This moving reflection will be followed by the performance of Samuel Barber’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14.” The lush and thick textures of the neo-romantic concerto takes the audience through some of Barber’s most glorious melodies in the repertoire.
The first half of the concert rounds out with “Legend for Violin and Orchestra Op. 14” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. This short concert piece, one of 31 Coleridge-Taylor wrote for the violin, pleases with its simplicity and delicacy as the soloist sings above the orchestral accompaniment.
After a short intermission, the concert will conclude with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, ‘Scottish.’” Mendelssohn wrote the first 16 bars of the symphony not long after visiting the dilapidated building where Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded. The music might remind listeners of the mood, nuances and impressions of the highlands that the composer experienced while hiking there in the summer of 1829.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Newport Performing Arts Center. Ticket start at $45 for adults and $16 for students.
Saturday’s performance has a pre-concert talk by conductor Adam Flatt at 6:45 p.m. for all the Saturday night ticket holders at no additional cost.
Following each concert is a special complimentary “Wine Down,” featuring select wines from the Flying Dutchman Winery of Otter Rock plus an array of food where audience members can mingle with Flatt, the guest artist and orchestra members.
For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.
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