SASO final two programs preview in April and May

Punch Howarth

This article is a preview of the final two concert programs of the current season by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra conducted by Linus Lerner. The first of these concerts to be performed in early April following an invitational performance by SASO in mid-February at the Gramado International Music Festival in Brazil, South America, and the concert will feature four works, all of which include soloists.

Opening the concert will be Goodnight Moon by Whitacre for soprano, harp and strings. Soprano Christi Amonson returns to sing again with SASO which will be a delight. Also, Larry Leung returns to perform on his guzheng, an oriental string instrument, in He Zhanhao’s Eternal Regret of Lin An. Another soloist, not yet selected, will be the winner of the Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition.

Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum in five parts will conclude the program and features full orchestra, soprano-alto-tenor-bass soloists and SATB chorus. This concert will be performed in Green Valley at 7:00 p.m. at Valley Presbyterian Church on Friday, April 1 at SaddleBrooke’s DesertView Performing Arts Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 2 and in Oro Valley at 3:00 p.m. at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Sunday, April 3.

The season’s final concert will be a large undertaking with three major works by 3 B’s, Brahms, Barber and Berlioz. Opening the concert will be Brahms’ oxymoronic, serious-humorous Academic Festival Overture and readers will have to wait for an explanation in a future article. Next on the program is Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with Emily Sun soloist. Symphonie Fantastique in five movements by Hector Berlioz, a work that later inspired a new form of music called Tone Poems by Liszt and R. Strauss, will bring down the curtain on another enjoyable season. This program will be performed on Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at DesertView Performing Arts Auditorium in SaddleBrooke and in Oro Valley at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 8 at 3:00 p.m. For additional information about tickets, soloists, SASO and joining the orchestra, go to www.sasomusic.org.