A major contributor to the arts and cultural tiara we put on our heads is the performance on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Concord City Auditorium of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra – All Beethoven, directed by Filippo Ciabatti, an Italian maestro and the most approachable orchestral conductor you’ll ever meet. The 60-member orchestra includes Dartmouth’s top music students and members of the area’s professional musician community.
The piano soloist for Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto No. 5 is Sally Pinkas, the college’s artist-in-residence. The program also includes the “Coriolan Overture” and the crowning piece is “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.”
Why is this important? One by one, symphony orchestras have left New Hampshire for greener pastures. Now comes an acclaimed symphony from Hanover, surely the “greenest” pasture in New Hampshire.
It’s important for the quality and reach of their work (just back from a tour through Tuscany!). The orchestra will play the same concert to a full house in Hanover’s Spaulding Auditorium the previous night.
It’s important because it is a rare opportunity for central New Hampshire to hear great classical music performed by a stunningly good orchestral ensemble. In this dreadful winter weather, it’s a day to treat yourself to a Sunday lunch – at home or in a local restaurant – and have Beethoven for dessert.
It’s important as a factor in the state’s creative economy because the money stays here, cycling through the economic multiplier. That matters a lot.
Ans, it’s important because it is the third concert in the 88th season of the Concord Community Concert Association, an all-volunteer organization fulfilling its mission of presenting great music, affordable and accessible to all, for local audiences.
True to its founding principles, tickets to the symphony are only $20 (or $23 online) at Gibson’s Bookstore, The UPS Store, the door or by calling 344-4747. There’s more info and tickets at concordcommunityconcerts.org. Best of all, families have the rare opportunity to introduce their young children to the classical masterpieces at no charge; children are admitted free.
Everyone is welcome.
And it’s important because it’s a beautiful green break in this endless white winter, a true “cabin fever cure.” The afternoon’s program also includes a delicious pre-show dessert reception and “cabin fever cure” silent auction filled with opportunities to enjoy a greener– or warmer – day at home or on the town.
About the artists:
Filippo Ciabatti, conductor, a native of Florence, Italy, is the music director of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and the interim music director of the Dartmouth Glee Club. With opera director Peter Webster, Ciabatti has created the Dartmouth Opera Lab. In October 2018, the first production featured Grammy Award-winning baritone Daniel Belcher and soprano Amy Owens.
During the summer of 2018, Ciabatti was invited to be a Conducting Fellow at the Aurora Music Festival in Stockholm, under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste.
Since her London debut at Wigmore Hall, Israeli-born pianist Sally Pinkas has been heard as soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. Among her career highlights are performances with the Boston Pops, the Aspen Philharmonia and New York’s Jupiter Symphony, and appearances at the festivals of Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen and Rockport, as well as Kfar Blum in Israel, Officina Scotese in Italy, and Masters de Pontlevoy in France. Committed to working with young artists, she has presented masterclasses at Oxford and Harvard universities, the Conservatorio Di Musica S. Cecilia in Rome, the China Conservatory in Xian and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory, to name a few.
Praised for her radiant tone and driving energy, Pinkas commands a wide range of repertoire. In 2015 she made her debut in the Philippines, performing and recording rarely heard Filipino “salon music” for the University of the Philippines’ Centennial. With her husband Evan Hirsch (The Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo) she has toured widely, and has premiered and recorded works by Rochberg, Pinkham, Peter Child, Kui Dong and Thomas Oboe Lee.
