Beethoven 7

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Saturday, November 4, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 2:30 pm
Hemmens Cultural Center

Andrew Grams, conductor
Jennifer Frautschi, violin

Copland           Our Town
Stephenson     Tributes Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Beethoven      Symphony No. 7

A blockbuster program that features Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and two (2) ESO premieres! While most rave about Beethoven’s 7, “The final movement zips along at an irrepressible pace that threatens to sweep the entire orchestra off its feet and around the theater, caught up in the sheer joy of performing one of the most perfect symphonies ever written,” many contemporaries actually speculated that Beethoven was drunk when he wrote the piece, especially the fourth movement, about which Conductor Thomas Beecham commented, “What can you do with it? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about.” The program also holds the ESO premiere of Chicago-area composer James Stephenson’s Tributes Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, featuring violinist Jennifer Frautschi. Ms. Frautschi last appeared with the ESO in concerts of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. American composer Aaron Copland’s Our Town will also make its ESO premiere. Adapted from his film score for the 1940 movie of the same name, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Score.

Leo Urdaneta, ESO patron. I didn’t know much about classical music when I attended my first ESO concert, but now I am a big fan of Andrew Grams and the ESO. Their programs are always exciting and moving, like this Beethoven concert, and it’s a great group of people. It’s like we are a family.