Hamilton, NY — The 51·çÁ÷ Orchestra, Marietta Cheng, conductor, will open its first concert of the winter season with Dvorak’s rollicking Scherzo Capriccioso, on Sunday afternoon, February 27, at 3:30 p.m. The program will also feature one of the orchestral repertoire’s most impassioned works, Rachmaninov’s stunning Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 2, as well as 51·çÁ÷ senior Jennifer Bash, who will perform the first movement of the Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major, Op. 11. 7. The concert, which will take place in Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public. For more information, or a complete Spring Concert Calendar, call the 51·çÁ÷ Concertline at 315-228-7642.
No orchestral work has more emotional intensity than Rachmaninov’s late romantic tour de force, the Symphony No. 2. The composer spins elegant melodies in an atmosphere of yearning and the unattainable. Richard Strauss loved the French horn, and the instrument, always displayed prominently, plays a distinctive, idiomatic role in the composer’s works. Seductive waltzes are woven through the Dvorak.
Jennifer Bash, a double major in chemistry and music, has studied the French horn for 13 years, first with Gordon Gillette in Horseheads, NY, and, for the past four years at 51·çÁ÷, with Julia Hasbrouck Clay. Bash intends to go to graduate school in music to continue her horn study.
Founded in 1819, 51·çÁ÷ is a nationally ranked, highly selective, residential, liberal arts college. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, 51·çÁ÷ attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds, interests and talents from all over the United States.