Orchestra of Southern Utah: November 2020

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Handel's "Messiah" during Challenging Times

Remember to get your season ticket to assure seating for this year's 80th Cedar City performance of Handel's Messiah. Seating will be limited due to health restrictions and masks are required. Season ticket holders will be assured space. Other tickets will be released starting Nov. 27. Season ticket link

Thanks to the State Bank of Southern Utah and the Leavitt Group for making this production possible. We hope to provide a streaming option for those who are unable to attend live performances.

The online performance will be available from Saturday, Dec. 19th at 10:00 a.m. to January 1st at 5:00 pm. The link will be at myosu.org

Mystery of Godliness is the theme of this year's production.
Poster design by Rollan Fell.

This year's performance will have a reduced choir and orchestra with a Baroque interpretation of this great masterpiece. The selections and soloists are noted below with the chorus noted in all capitals. Jackie Riddle Jackson is preparing the choir with Xun Sun as director.

Adjustments may be made depending on health restrictions, but the plan is to have a live audience for both evenings and then to provide a streaming option to share the music for the Christmas season.

#1 Overture, orchestra
#2 Comfort Ye My People ~ Derek Holt
#3 Every Valley ~ Derek Holt
#4 AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD
#5 Thus Saith the Lord ~ Joseph Marrow
#6 But Who May Abide ~ Alex Byers
#8 Behold! A Virgin Shall Conceive ~ Taliah Byers
#9 O THOU THAT TELLEST ~ Taliah Byers
#12 FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN
#13 Pastoral Symphony
#14 There Were Shepherds Abiding in the Field/And Lo the Angel of the Lord ~ Erica Griffin
#15 And the Angel Said Unto Them ~ Erica Griffin
#16 And Suddenly, There was with the Angel ~ Erica Griffin
#17 GLORY TO GOD
#18 Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion! ~ Dee Holt
#19 Then Shall the Eyes of the Blind be Open’d ~ Jan Pressgrove
#20 He Shall Feed His Flock ~ Jan Pressgrove
Come Unto Him ~ Brandi Hall
#22 BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD
#24 SURELY, HE HATH BOURNE OUR GRIEFS
#38 How Beautiful are the Feet of Them ~ Natalie Davila
#40 Why Do the Nations so Furiously Roar Together ~ Alex Byers
#44 HALLELUJAH!
#45 I Know That My Redeemer Liveth ~ Elise Fulton
#47 Behold, I Tell You A Mystery ~ Curtis Chamberlain
#48 The Trumpet Shall Sound
~ BARITONE: Curtis Chamberlain
~ TRUMPET: TBD
#49 Then Shall be Brought to Pass ~ Brooke Alldredge
#50 O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING
ALTO: Brooke Alldredge
TENOR: Jacob Moss
#52 If God Be For Us ~ Terri Metcalf-Peterson
#53 WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN

Monday, November 16, 2020

Celebrating the Living Gift of Beethoven

By Bryce Christensen

Because the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig von Beethoven has coincided with a global pandemic, many concerts slated to celebrate his musical achievement have been cancelled. But as a few brave directors and orchestras have found ways this fall to again perform the great composer’s work for live audiences, listeners have responded with warm appreciation. In Bonn, Germany, Mayor Ashok Sridharan recently acknowledged, “We have had no concerts since March and the demand for them has become greater than any of us would have dreamed of. If there is one good thing that has come out of this pandemic, it is that people are desperately longing to hear Beethoven performed live again. It is as though many only now fully appreciate just how much of a gift his music is.”

Though a long way from Bonn, Cedar City has also experienced a famine of live symphony concerts during the Sesquicentennial of Beethoven’s birth, so generating a desperate yearning here--just as in Bonn--for live performances of his work. Over one hundred very happy music lovers-- all appropriately masked and socially distanced-- gathered at the Cedar City’s Heritage Center on November 12th to share in the sheer joy of a live Beethoven concert. Though no doubt somewhat diminished, the joy of hundreds of others who later experienced that concert as a cyber recording was heartfelt. Cedar City’s music-lovers together rejoiced in the gift given them by the Orchestra of Southern Utah (OSU) as it found a way to surmount the difficulties imposed by COVID-19 to again play the incomparable music of the German genius born 250 years ago--for both a live audience and a cyber one.

With the concert’s very first number, listeners recognized the reason that OSU labeled its celebration of Beethoven’s art as a “Masterful Romance,” so extending its season-long theme of “Romanza.” For with marvelous creative mastery, Beethoven conjures a romance of heart-breaking defeat and unassailable hope in his Egmont Overture. With his signature fervor, OSU director Xun Sun drew from the orchestra a regal stateliness in the opening measures, segued into dark and tense transitional passages, and finally reached a piercing and dramatic finale. Inspired by Goethe, the playwright who wrote the tragedy for which his work was a musical complement, Beethoven truly plumbs the spiritual depths of the political martyr at center-stage in this play, but also soars to the heroic ideals for which he gives his life. Director and orchestra seamlessly glide through the dark and tense passages in this dramatic number to climb to the empyreal heights of its majestic conclusion.

The spritelier second Beethoven number in the concert--the Scherzando movement of Quartet No. 7: in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1-- stirred audiences with its puckish energy. This effervescent piece radiated a boundless zest and hope, impervious to melancholy and despair. Sun and the talented musicians under his baton poured forth an enchanting river of musical radiance. As a complement to the opening number, this Quartet compellingly reminded listeners of the breadth and diversity of Beethoven’s musical palette.

As they turned their attention to the final Beethoven work of the concert, listeners thrilled to Triple Concerto in C Major for Violin, Cello, and Piano--identified by Beethoven’s first biographer as a work written for the composer’s royal pupil, the Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Certainly, in its serene opening passages, it delivered something of the gracious and dignified leisure of a regal sphere. But by the end of its first movement this concerto had risen into a powerful crescendo, only to subside in its later movements-- and then crested again. While the orchestra as a whole adeptly shaped the broad contours of this composition, the inner details emerged in the interplay of the three guest musicians: violinist Paul Abegg (faculty at Dixie State University), cellist Ka-Wai Yu (faculty at Dixie State University), and pianist Christian Bohnenstengel (faculty at Southern Utah University). Listeners could only relish the exquisite musical colloquy between Abegg’s soaring violin flights, Yu’s plangent cello interludes, and Bohnenstengel’s pellucid piano cascades--melded in perfect synchrony with the larger harmonic pattern developed by the orchestra. Somewhere, the shade of Beethoven (his hearing surely restored) smiled with pleasure. Director Sun deserves high praise not only for having the orchestra so well prepared for this culminating number but also for having secured the services of such extraordinary soloists.

As the spell-binding final notes of the Triple Concerto died out, listeners in the Heritage Center applauded their thanks for the opportunity to once again hear such sublime music in live performance--while those who later joined via cyber recording savored a gift still very much worth having. While no one knows just how long COVID-19 will continue to challenge symphony orchestras, listeners in Cedar City have reason to join listeners in Bonn in expressing deep appreciation for musicians willing to meet that challenge by venturing onto the concert stage for live performances again.

Photos thanks to Christian Bohnenstengel

Xun Sun directing the Egmont Overture

Scherzando from string quartet

OSU President Harold Shirley introducing the selections

Triple concerto performance

Friday, November 13, 2020

Celebrating the Legacy of Beethoven

The Orchestra of Southern Utah presented a celebration of Beethoven's music on November 12, 2020, with safety measures during a pandemic. With a reduced audience, lots of masks, and social distancing the music provided a respite and healing moment. Streaming of the concert goes from November 14 to 21 and the access code is now available with a ticket from the website ticket link.

Ticket holders should have received an access code email. If not, please check your spam folder and if it is not there let us know: osucedarcity@gmail.com Thank you for your support of your orchestra.

Video: Small portion of the Egmont Overture rehearsal

Video: Rehearsal fragment from Triple Concerto with Dr. Paul Abegg, Dr. Ka-Wai Yu, and Dr. Christian Bohnenstengel

Concert photos: