The Lake Forest Symphony is performing tonight and tomorrow night at the The James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts on the College of Lake County campus in Grayslake, IL. The soloist for the weekend is the soprano Michelle Areyzaga, and she will be singing Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 (K. 158a). Lake Forest Symphony Music Director Alan Heatherington will be conducting both performances.
The week has been going well so far, and I am looking forward to the performances. The other pieces on the program include Mozart’s two G minor symphonies. These two pieces are an interesting study in contrasts. The “Little” G minor (No. 25) was written when Mozart was 17, and the other G minor (No. 40) was written near the end of his life. It is interesting to compare the differences in compositional styles between the two pieces–both are great music, but Mozart is more experimental with the form in his Symphony No. 40. People will recognize the opening of the “Little” G minor symphony as the music played at the beginning of the film “Amadeus” when Salieri tries to kill himself.
The James Lumber Center is a very nice facility with great acoustics. The old home of the Lake Forest Symphony was the Drake Theater at Barat College, a truly rotten facility. The main negative with the new hall is that it is located in Grayslake, Illinois, many miles from Lake Forest (and even more miles away from Evanston and Chicago). It is strange to have the Lake Forest Symphony not perform in Lake Forest–patrons have to take a bus or drive out to Grayslake. Maybe someday Lake Forest residents will step up and fund a hall of their own and quit relying on area institutions to provide the facilities.
Did you know that Mr. T lives in Lake Forest? He used to, at least.
technorati tags: Lake, Forest, Symphony, Illinois, concert, Grayslake, Mr., T, Salieri,
Bass News Right To Your Inbox!
Subscribe to get our weekly newsletter covering the double bass world.