The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra – Four Centuries

The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra presents

Four Centuries of Orchestra Music

Saturday, September 17, 2016 – 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for this performance range from $25 – $35 _{+taxes & fees}

The Wilmington Symphony’s opening night of the 2016-2017 Masterworks Series, titled “Serenades”, on Saturday, September 17th at 7:30 p.m., showcases the acoustics of the Wilson Center with music spanning four centuries.  You’ve got to hear it live!

This concert program is bursting with exceptional music, with sounds ranging from the antiphonal brass choirs of 17th century Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, to the full symphony in Benjamin Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, to the recently composed Danzón No. 2 by prominent Mexican composer Arturo Márquez.  Also featured will be Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, and Wagner’s “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” from Die Götterdämmerung.

Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, later adapted with a narration as Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, premiered in 1946.  It was intended as a film work, and has become one of Britten’s most popular concert pieces.

Danzón No. 2 is one of the most popular Mexican contemporary classical orchestral pieces.  It inspired a short film made in 2009, set in Mexico City in the 1940s. The film features Márquez himself in a cameo as the pianist of a dance-hall.