EDMONDS — For the first concert of Cascade Symphony’s season, conductor Michael Miropolsky features the main sections of the orchestra. In parts.
The Elegie and Finale from Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” is all about the violins, violas, cellos and basses. And the more strings, the merrier, Tchaikovsky wrote about the piece.
The first two movements of the Serenade — the Pezzo and Valse, which you won’t hear — are perhaps the better known of the four, having been used in film scores. If you are familiar with the first movement, hold it in your mind for this concert.
The third movement, Elegie, is lyrical, as one would expect from Tchaikovsky, and it ends with a harmonic fade-out that some writers have termed “ghostly.” A good choice for this time of year.
The Finale has a muted start with tune based on a Russian folk song. Soon it becomes a rollicking dance that builds faster and faster. Just when one would expect its slow beginning to reappear, a bit from the very first movement — the Pezzo — shows up.
Alfred Reed’s “El Camino Real” — subtitled “A Latin Fantasy” — features the brass, wind and percussion sections. Composed in the mid-1980s, the piece is dedicated to the 581st Air Force Band. No string instruments in this score, but still, think Spanish flamenco guitars gone wild.
The program opens with De Falla’s Spanish Dance No. 1 from “La Vida Breve” and ends with Prokofieff’s Symphony No. 7, which was composed with a younger audience in mind.
“The symphony may not be familiar to many in the audience, but the last movement especially is just so fun,” said lead cellist Norma Dermond. “I can’t help smiling when I play it.”
In between all of this Russian and Spanish goodness will be the appearance of 14-year-old violinist Marley Erickson performing the popular Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1.
Since making her solo orchestral debut at age 11, Marley has appeared by invitation as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra and numerous other orchestras, both local and international. In 2016, Marley was named a laureate in the 2016 Piccolo Violino Magico International Violin Competition. She also competed in the Menuhin International Violin Competition, and was awarded third place in the Louis Spohr International Violin Competition.
The violinist produced and performed a full concert program in March for the Local Artist Series at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, which included the world premiere of “Canto One” by Jerry Mader. Marley lives in Langley on Whidbey Island and currently studies violin in Seattle with Simon James.
If you go
Cascade Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N., Edmonds. KING-FM radio host Dave Beck offers a program lecture at 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $27 for adults, $22 for seniors, $15 for students with ID, and $10 for children. Call 425-275-9595. Due to ticket demand, patrons are asked to return tickets they will not use to the ECA box office. Even though a concert is “sold out,” returned tickets do become available at the door. Season tickets for the 2017-2018 season will still be available at the concert. More at cascadesymphony.org.
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