Brass Band Northwest: Cry of the Celts
$10 suggested donation
Amy Beach — Ecstasy
Edward Elgar — Variation IX: "Nimrod" from Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma Variations"
Herbert Howells — Suite Pageantry
Leonard Bernstein — Shivaree: A Fanfare
Michael Weinstein — Four Songs Without Words
Ronan Hardiman — Cry of the Celts
Dukas – Fanfare to La Peri
Beach – Ecstasy
Elgar – Nimrod from Enigma Variations
Howells – Suite Pageantry
Bernstein – Shivaree
Weinstein – Four Songs Without Words
Miller – Aftermath
Hardiman – Cry of the Celts
Brass Band Northwest invites you to our fall concert, Cry of the Celts. This program features several works from Great Britain displaying the indomitable spirit of that nation. Herbert Howells is most known for his lyric works for chorus or organ and Suite Pageantry shows this lyric tendency especially in the second movement, Cortege. Nimrod is the emotional core of Elgar's most popular work, Enigma Variations, and figures prominently in the recent movie, Dunkirk. Our program concludes with Cry of the Celts, music from the popular Irish step-dancing program, Riverdance.
This season we celebrate the centenary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein and will feature his music on our programs. We open our season in October with Shivaree (1970), a short fanfare that Bernstein composed in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and later repurposed in Mass. Our May program includes a movement of his charming Chichester Psalms (1965), originally for chorus and orchestra and in June we present three dances from On The Town (1947).
In many ways Bernstein personified American music in the twentieth century performing at the highest levels as pianist, conductor, composer and educator. He is perhaps most remembered as music director of the New York Philharmonic – especially his performances for the Young People’s Concerts – and as the composer of West Side Story.
As a composer, he was active in the concert hall – three symphonies, three operas (Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, and A Quiet Place) and three ballets (Fancy Free, Facsimile, and Dybbuk), among numerous other works, but was perhaps most successful on Broadway with On the Town, Wonderful Town, and especially West Side Story.