The Idaho Falls Symphony concludes its 66th season Saturday with a concert of “epic magnitude and ambition,” a symphony news release said.
For the first time in its history, the symphony will tackle “the formidable Fifth Symphony by Sergei Prokofiev, one of the most-celebrated composers of the 20th century,” the release said.
“Prokofiev’s music is remarkable, heroic, and powerful,” symphony music director Thomas Heuser said in the release. “The visceral impact of the Prokofiev will leave audiences stunned.”
Saturday’s concert is at 7:30 p.m. in the Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium. It opens with the subscription debut of a new work called “Big Rip for Orchestra” by American composer Michael-Thomas Foumai. Foumai’s music “depicts the violent expansion of the universe in the moments after the Big Bang,” the release said.
Following Foumai’s overture, audiences will be treated to the “Unfinished Symphony” by Franz Schubert, “one of the most familiar and beloved works in the repertoire,” the release said.
“By pairing Foumai and Schubert on the first half we are getting our audiences ready for the music of Prokofiev, whose Fifth Symphony can be understood as the marriage of modernism and Romanticism,” Heuser said in the release. “Foumai’s music is powerful in its percussive, rhythmic drive, whereas Schubert’s music draws its power from an emotional intensity. Prokofiev embraces both approaches, and the resulting power in his music therefore resonates with both our hearts and our intellect.”
Prokofiev completed his Fifth Symphony in the summer of 1944 at the height of World War II. He intended the Symphony to be “a hymn to free and happy Man,” the release said.
Tickets and information about the “Prokofiev Power” concert are available online at www.ifsymphony.org, or by calling the Symphony office at 529-1080.
Patrons can join Heuser before the concert for an informal preconcert discussion starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Civic Auditorium. The symphony also will announce the details of its upcoming 2016-17 season on the night of the concert, while also accepting early orders for new season-ticket subscriptions, the release said.
http://www.postregister.com/articles/featured-news-ticket/2016/04/21/symphony-finale-features-‘powerful-masterworks’#
