Going Italian
On Saturday, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, with honey-harmony’d support from the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, presents a powerful program called “Festival Italiano.” The ECSO performs under the direction of music director Toshi Shimada, while the chorus celebrates their debut performance behind new director Wendy K. Moy.
Regarding the Italian, the evening will indeed be thematic. Native son Giuseppe Verdi is represented through his Stabat Mater, which will feature Moy and the chorus. And, though Mendelssohn was German, his Symphony No 4 in A major, Op 90 is known as his “Italian Symphony” and is considered one of the most tuneful and brilliant of his repertoire.
Stravinsky, the Russian-born composer who lived in America, France and Switzerland but, ah, not Italy, nonetheless wrote the short but lovely Pulcinella Suite, which was originally conceived as a ballet inspired by a popular Italian character. Finally, ECSO principal violist Barbara Wiggin will star on a recitation of a Joan Tower commission called Purple Rhapsody. Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; $31-$65, $12 seats available to patrons under 40 and current or retired military personnel; (860) 4432876, ectsymphony.com.