While we all know music can tell tales and create moods, Fox Valley Orchestra’s next concert will take this concept a step further.
A narrator will join the orchestra for its “Tell A Story” concert at 3 p.m. March 13 at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre.
“I love that this concert follows a different, rarely used format,” Music Director Stephen Squires said. “Also that it draws the connection that music has, and always has had, to other art forms — in this case, literature. These stories are fun, family-friendly and timeless.”
The audience is invited along for the literary ride.
“This concert features three works that programmatically follow a story and musically represents the characters within those stories,” Squires explained. “I chose these to represent a variety of literary and musical styles.”
The concert opens with German composer Felix Mendelssohn’s 1842 incidental music for William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“Our guest narrator will read short excerpts to set the mood of each scene,” Squires said.
Henry Fogel serves as the concert’s narrator.
“Mr. Fogel has had a distinguished career, including many years as president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, president of the American Symphony Orchestra League and dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts,” Squires said. “We are blessed and fortunate to have him join us in this special concert.”
Next on the program is French composer Paul Dukas’s 1897 symphonic poem “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which was inspired by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1797 ballad.
“This music and story are well known from its Disney version from the movie ‘Fantasia,'” Squires said. “We found a narration to accompany the music that tells the colorful story first penned by Goethe.”
Of course, adding spoken words to a performance is not always so simple.
“In ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ great care needs to be taken to coordinate the narration in time with the music,” he pointed out.
The second half of the concert features American composer Deems Taylor’s 1918 “Through the Looking Glass,” which Squires describes as “spectacular.”
“Taken from Lewis Carroll’s second novel on the subject of Alice entering this fantastical land, the music beautifully depicts the sweetness, character and nostalgia found in the story,” Squires said. “Again, our narrator will read short descriptions to set up each movement.”
Coordinating with the narration aside, all three musical works on the program are plenty complicated on their own.
“The most challenging aspect is in the technical difficulty of the music itself,” Squires said. “This one really stretches the orchestra.”
No doubt, the combination of music and voice will produce an afternoon of unique storytelling.
“I hope the audiences senses the amazing power of music to represent the human experience,” Squires said. “I hope they enjoy how different composers from different eras and different parts of the world turn words and character into their unique sound.”
Fox Valley Orchestra’s ‘Tell A Story’ Concert
When: 3 p.m. March 13
Where: Batavia Fine Arts Centre, 1250 W. Wilson St.
Tickets: $16-$28
Information: bataviafineartscentre.org/events
Jen Banowetz is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.
