He said the Mendelssohn Mania theme is appropriate because the entire concert will feature the repertoire of Mendelssohn. A lot of his music is also well known, such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“Mendelssohn was one of those early romantic composers. He was a pianist, organist, conductor, and composer, you name it. He did it all. His story is also one of those really tragic stories in the history of music, a little like Mozart, who passed away very young,” Woodard said.
The orchestra originally prepared the concert to be performed last year as a Sunday matinee concert, but the group woke up Sunday morning to eight inches of snow and the concert had to be postponed.
“It was the first time in my career that I’ve ever had to cancel a concert because of weather, but it just wasn’t safe to have everyone on the roads, but here we are, and we are happy to do it this year,” Woodard said.
The “Mendelssohn Mania” concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sorg Opera House in Middletown. Tickets for the concert are $25. Members of the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra can purchase tickets for $20. Tickets for college students are $10 and children ages 12 and under are free.
World-renowned violinist Cristian Fatu will return to the Sorg to join the orchestra on Mendelssohn’s iconic Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64. Fatu has previously performed with orchestra.
This piece was the last concerto that Mendelssohn wrote and it’s “an amazing work” that has become a standard for some of the greatest violinists in the world.
“Cristian has been with us before…He was so popular here that the audience called him back for two encores,” Woodard said. “We are extremely excited to be performing with him again. He was born in Romania, and he now lives here in the states in California. He’s a major voice in the violin world, so we’re very lucky to have him with us.”
Other concert highlights will include the opening number, “Hebrides Overture,” also known as “Fingal’s Cave,” as well as the closing piece, Symphony No. 4 “Italian.”
“It’s going to be a great concert for everyone to hear,” Woodard said. “We are going to bookend the concert with two pieces that Mendelssohn wrote in the same year, 1833, and these two pieces really highlight Mendelssohn’s love of travel. His family had the means, and he traveled a lot as a young person. He just absorbed all of the culture that he saw and that came through in his music.”
For more information about the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra, visit butlerphil.org. A complete concert schedule and related details are also available on the site.
How to go
What: Butler Philharmonic Orchestra to present “Mendelssohn Mania”
When: Sat., March 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Sorg Opera House, 63 S. Main St., Middletown
Cost: Tickets for the concert are $25. Members of the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra can purchase tickets for $20. Tickets for college students are $10 and children ages 12 and under are free.
More info: butlerphil.org and sorgoperahouse.org
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