The Bucks County Symphony Orchestra opens its 71st season with a Fall Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown.
The concert is sponsored by the Warren Family Foundation in memory of Tamara Warren, a cellist in the BCSO for 18 years.
Maestro José Luis Domínguez conducts the BCSO in a performance of the mammoth “Symphony No. 1” by Gustav Mahler. Scored for double wind sections as well as the full force of strings and percussion, this work debuted in its current form in 1896.
Initially conceived as a symphonic poem in two sections and nicknamed “Titan” after one of the composer’s favorite novels, it was revised several times and ultimately presented as a conventional four-movement symphony.
Assistant Conductor Sebastian Grand leads the orchestra in Aaron Copland’s “Clarinet Concerto,” commissioned by jazz great Benny Goodman in 1947 and performed this weekend with the BCSO by Astral Artist Amer Hasan. A recipient of top prizes in both solo and chamber music competitions, Hasan won the Astral National Competition in 2021.
Through his performances, he showcases his tenacity as an artist and citizen by creating an immersive and visceral concert experience. Performing and teaching classical music has led him to engage with audiences all over the world.
In this concerto, Copland has created a brilliant work combining serious concert music with elements of jazz. The piece’s alternate title is “Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra, with Harp and Piano.” In addition to this unusual orchestration, it is cast not in the customary three-movement concerto form, but in an atypical configuration of two continuous movements connected by a cadenza.
Tickets, at $25 for adults and $20 for seniors, can be purchased in Doylestown at Rutherford’s Camera Shop and the Doylestown Bookshop, or online at BucksCountySymphony.org. Students are admitted free (online ticketing only). Visit the website or call 215-348-7321 for information.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
