In Friday’s (6/29) Courier-Journal, Elizabeth Kramer writes, “After being plagued by a labor dispute for more than a year, the Louisville Orchestra returns to the stage in September to open its 75th anniversary season with guest pianist Jeremy Denk. The rest of the season includes classical works never performed by the orchestra, a weeklong examination of Mexico’s influence on composer Aaron Copland in March and a concert with the Indigo Girls. Conducting the Sept. 8 season kickoff, a concert called Fanfara, will be music director Jorge Mester and Bob Bernhardt, the principal pops conductor, who is in his 30th year with the organization. … Overall, the concert shows ‘the two faces of the Louisville orchestra,’ said Mester, with its second half celebrating Bernhardt’s anniversary as he conducts the orchestra in the music of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others from the Great American Songbook. Guest vocal artist will be Steve Lippia.” The orchestra performs for the first time works “penned by several American composers, including ‘From Afar: Fantasy for Guitar and Orchestra’ by Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Schwantner, as well as pieces by Peter Schickele, Philip Glass and Samuel Barber. Mester said he also worked to incorporate touchstones of the orchestra’s history into the season by programming pieces from the orchestra’s inaugural concert in 1937 under its first conductor, Robert Whitney, throughout the season.”
Posted July 2, 2012
