This concert features three beautiful and rarely heard works in which the composers employ color, in the form of orchestral sound. The GCO will be performing Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony, Ottorino Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano and Aaron Copland’s Three Latin American Sketches.
The first piece, Chamber Symphony of Franz Schreker, has interesting writing for orchestral instruments including percussion, harp, celesta and a type of organ. The second piece is by Respighi, a name many people associate with a massive orchestra and his brilliant tone-poems about Rome (Pines, of Rome, Fountains of Rome), but he wrote a number of beautiful works for smaller orchestra including this colorful piece based on three famous paintings by Botticelli. Finally the third piece is by Aaron Copland, and the GCO has championed his works since their first season. The energetic Latin American sketches is rarely heard but is a wonderful piece by an iconic American composer.
“We recorded the Chamber Symphony of Franz Schreker on our Chamber Symphonies disc,” explains Gregory Wolynec, Gateway Chamber Orchestra Music Director. “Preparing it 7 years later is like getting reacquainted with an old friend that we have missed.”
