The Palisades Symphony will present a free concert at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 5, at Palisades High School’s Mercer Hall, 15777 Bowdoin. The program will feature ‘Polka and Fuge’ from the opera ‘Shvanda Dudak’ (‘Shvanda the Bagpiper’) by Jarom’r Weinberger, ‘Tone Poem for Clarinet and Strings’ by Charles Fernandez, and the ‘Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra’ by Carl Maria von Weber, with soloist Helen Goode-Castro on clarinet. After the intermission, the orchestra will perform Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky. Weinberger, born in Prague in 1896, achieved great success with ‘Shvanda Dudak,’ first performed in1927. It shows the composer’s gift for tuneful melody, effective use of Czech and Slovak folklore and dance rhythms, brilliant orchestration and fluent use of counterpoint. Emmy-nominated composer Fernandez wrote ‘Tone Poem’ with Goode-Castro in mind. He has written commissions for Cal State Northridge and the Los Angeles Bach Festival. Composer, pianist and critic von Weber was an important founder of the Romantic movement in Germany and helped form a new enthusiasm for German opera. He also wrote a wealth of arias, lieder, choral music, instrumental pieces and orchestral music. Goode-Castro hails from England, where she performed with the BBC Philharmonic, among others. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has freelanced regularly with local orchestras.
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