By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk
Grand Rapids Symphony
Though concert halls, movie theaters, restaurants and pubs are closed, in this time of social distancing, we still need to feel connected to the wider community. We need music now more than ever.
Tune in to Blue Lake Public Radio on Sunday afternoons and hear your Grand Rapids Symphony in a concert performed earlier this season. Though Sunday’s performance isn’t live, the recording was made live and airs unedited, so it’s almost the same as being there in DeVos Performance Hall.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 29, Blue Lake Public Radio airs the Grand Rapids Symphony’s concert Prokofiev Triumphant, part of the 2019-20 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series, originally performed Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15-16.
Tune in at 1 p.m. to Blue Lake Radio at WBLU-FM 88.9 in Grand Rapids or WBLV-FM 90.3 in Muskegon or go online to Blue Lake Radio here.
Guest violinist Tai Murray joined the orchestra as soloist for Eduardo Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. Guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, one of the world’s most prominent female conductors, also led the orchestra in two short pieces by another woman, French composer Lili Boulanger, who composed D’un soir triste and D’un matin de printemps not long before her untimely death at age 24.
Most notably, Falletta leads the Grand Rapids Symphony in Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Composed during World War II, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony triumphantly celebrates the Russian people’s spirit and perseverance through the darkest hours of the Second World War.
Grand Rapids Symphony’s concerts in the Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series and Holland Home Great Eras series air at 1 p.m. each Sunday on Blue Lake Radio.
Here’s the rest of the season’s lineup
Sun., April 5 – Shostakovich & Mozart – performed Jan. 10-11 in DeVos Hall
Pianist Jeffrey Kahane is soloist Mozart’s magical Piano Concerto No. 22 with guest conductor Peter Oundjian leading the Grand Rapids Symphony in a Dmitri Shostakovich showpiece, the rebellious Symphony No. 11 “The Year 1905,” and Richard Strauss’ Serenade for Winds.
Sun. April 12 – The Glory of the Baroque – performed Jan. 31 in St. Cecilia Music Center
Julian Wachner, artistic director of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival, leads the Grand Rapids Symphony in two well-known works from the Baroque, J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and G.F. Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, plus music by French Baroque composers Marin Marais and Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Sun. April 19 – Schubert’s Great – performed Feb. 14-15 in DeVos Hall
Pianist Inon Barnatan joins the Grand Rapids Symphony to perform Suspend for Piano and Orchestra by contemporary composer Andrew Norman, who was born in Grand Rapids. Music Director Marcelo Lehninger also leads the orchestra in Brahms’ Tragic Overture and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 “The Great.”
Sun. April 26 – Beethoven’s Pastoral – performed March 6-7 in DeVos Hall
Soprano Larisa Martinez joined the orchestra to sing selections from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ The Amazon Forest, and Brazilian-born Music Director Marcelo Lehninger also leads the Grand Rapids Symphony in Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony No. 6.
