Virginia Symphony Orchestra Announces Upcoming Williamsburg Classics Season
April 24, 2016
From classical music staples to holiday favorites to whimsical folk songs, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s recently announced 2016-17 Williamsburg Classics season includes something for a variety of music lovers.
The four-concert series kicks off at Crosswalk Community Church on Oct. 27 with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 – one of the famous composer’s most iconic and challenging works.
Also at the Oct. 27 concert, Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Bassoon and VSO alumnus Danny Matsukawa will be taking on Mozart’s “fiendishly challenging” Bassoon Concerto, according to a recent news release from the orchestra.
The first show of the season will be rounded out with a performance of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.
The Virginia Symphony Brass section will ring in the holidays on Dec. 15 with a program of holiday music at Phi Beta Kappa Hall. The VSO brass and percussion sections will join forces to bring the audience along for a festive evening of seasonal favorites.
The 2017 portion of the line-up will begin with Feb. 23’s “Intrigue & Idyll” featuring VSO violinist Yun Zhang as a soloist.
The program, which will take place at Crosswalk Community Church, will open with Mozart’s overture to his comic opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, then moves on to his fifth violin concerto, commonly referred to as “the Turkish.”
At the conclusion of these two intriguing Mozart pieces, the orchestra will perform Brahms’ idyllic Serenade No. 1 to close the concert.
The final concert of the season will take place at Phi Beta Kappa Hall on March 9 and will celebrate the music of the British Isles, including a Robert Burns-inspired overture, a suite of English folk tunes and Beethoven’s Irish Songs- just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.
In this final concert, VSO will also perform one of Haydn’s most famous London symphonies, Symphony No. 101, which is nicknamed “the Clock” because of the ticking rhythm of it second movement.
Four concert subscriptions start at $90 and can be purchased here or by calling 757-892-6366.
