BRATTLEBORO-The Windham Philharmonic closes its season on Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre with a “Symphony of Siblings,” an “adventurous evening” that organizers say “is designed to provoke, inspire, and delight: six orchestral movements, six composers, six moods. Watch us invent a symphony that doesn’t exist!”
To start is the first movement of Carl Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony. “This music is thrilling, sublime and combative: a solo snare drum attempts, literally and persistently, to derail the orchestra. The large body of players refuse, and we find ourselves in a melee of asymmetrical resistance. ... We remain committed to resisting.”
Anton Bruckner’s slow movement from his Sixth Symphony offers “peace after grieving: we all know there is so much to grieve.”
The orchestra then lightens the mood with “some extravagant ridiculousness”: Igor Stravinsky’s “Circus Polka” — written “for a prima ballerina and 50 elephants and a cow called Modoc,” which was performed 43 times by Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1941 at Madison Square Garden.
Carl Maria von Weber’s “tiny, quicksilver scherzo” from his Second Symphony “calls from on stage ‘catch me if you can!’” Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 4 (not the graduation march) ties up all the loose ends before closing with the finale of Ludwig van Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, described as “a dancing rondo, an Envoi, a door held warmly open: have an enchanted, enchanting evening!”
Admission is by donation at the door. All are welcome. For more information, visit windhamphilharmonic.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.