UC Davis Symphony Orchestra Perform Signature 19th Century Programmatic Works
The UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of D. Kern Holoman, performs Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique,” Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain,” and excerpts from act III of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” on Sunday, May 18, at 8 pm in Jackson Hall of Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
The program is crafted after the fashion of Alsatian conductor Charles Munch, who fostered the Berlioz renaissance in both Paris and Boston, and who apparently learned this setting of “Meistersinger” excerpts while concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. D. Kern Holoman is completing the first full-length biography of Munch.
The arrangement of the program, opening with “A Night on Bald Mountain” and concluding with “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” from “Symphonie fantastique,” affords an excellent opportunity to consider Romantic music’s supernatural, merrily satanic modes. Fantastic imagery abounds: Berlioz’s “Symphonie” tells the story of love and decapitation, ending in the famous “Dies irae.” Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” is instantly recognizable from the harrowing sequence in Disney’s 1940 animated feature film “Fantasia.”
UC Davis graduate student Jessica Bejarano will conduct the Mussorgsky, the first of two public concerts connected with her master’s thesis in conducting and centering on Russian secular art music. The second concert will be Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy on Thursday, June 5, at 7 pm, also with the UCDSO in a free performance at Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall.
Ticket pricing for May 18 is $10/13/16 for adults and $5/6.50/8 for students and children. Purchase tickets online at MondaviArts.org, through the Mondavi Center ticket office at 530-754-ARTS (2787) or 866-754-ARTS (toll-free), or at the door. Accommodations for persons with disabilities are available upon request.
For complete event information, to receive a Department of Music season brochure, or to join the department mailing list, call 530-752-0948 or visit music.ucdavis.edu/events.