My good friend was an usher at the Lesher Center for the Arts several years ago and spoke about what a wonderful place it is. I also have known about the California Symphony. Finally today, when my friends took me with them on the long drive from Davis to Walnut Creek, they came together when I saw the California Symphony with Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera continue the 2024-2025 season, showcasing the crowning achievements of composers at the peak of their powers, with BRAHMS ODYSSEY –this was an unusual and exciting concert that was designed to take audience members on an odyssey through the orchestra which I attended on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 4:00pm at Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).
Opening with Benjamin Britten’s lively Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, (1945) whichuses an individual theme to introduce different instruments in the orchestra, the music focused on the strings, woodwinds, percussion, brass, and more. This was created by setting orchestral variations on a theme from Henry Purcell’s 1695 incidental music for Aphra Behn’s tragic play Abdelozer. While the music was designed to essentially teach one to distinguish the sounds of different instruments, the work is beautiful.
The work of former California Symphony Resident Composer Mason Bates was next, introduced by Bates from afar, on the screen. The work is a complete contrast to Britten’s work. It is very contemporary in its approach and takes on the flavor of Disney’s Fantasia. This is his GRAMMY-winning concerto for orchestra and animated film, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra, guided by a mischievous sprite. With full orchestral accompaniment, and a spectacular finale, this was a delight to experience.
The second half of the program was devoted to Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. It is a very emotional, poignant masterpiece and it was the composer’s last symphony. Though Brahms lived for more than a decade after its premiere, this was his final symphony. It is often considered to be the pinnacle of his career. An enthusiastic standing ovation followed.
I loved a comment I heard, “I didn’t hear anything today that I didn’t like”. And another comment to Conductor Donato Cabrera: “You are getting more and more from the orchestra”
On Monday, November 4, the California Symphony launched its first Education Concerts heldduring the school day, welcoming 1500 fourth grade students from local Title I schools in Contra Costa County to two performances at the Lesher Center. In advance of the performances, California Symphony Teaching Artists visited classrooms to provide pre-concert music education. The in-classroom learning provided students a deeper understanding and appreciation of music and set the groundwork for a fun, productive, and memorable field trip.
“Over the course of my tenure with the California Symphony, the music of Johannes Brahms has figured prominently in our concerts. So, not only does performing his final symphony fit within the theme of our season, it brings to a close our survey of his symphonic output,” says Donato Cabrera. “When it came to pairing works with Brahms’s fourth symphony, I was reminded of the old phrase, ‘The Three B’s of classical music: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms,’ and thought that it would be fun (and high time) to update it! In choosing Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique, a piece that Mason describes as a ‘concerto for orchestra and animated film,’ we will be performing two works that belong to a long tradition of works composed to showcase and introduce the incredibly powerful and unique sounds that only the instruments of the orchestra can produce.”
I was surprised with the laid-back relaxed approach to enjoying music- clap when you are inspired to do so, bring drinks with you into the auditorium if you wish and leave your phones on if they are on silent. I was also impressed with how lovely and grand the Lesher Center is and its great acoustics.
More about the California Symphony
About Lesher Center for the Arts
All Photos: Kristen Loken
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