The North Shore Philharmonic will present its spring concert on Sunday, April 19 at 3 p.m. at the Swampscott High School auditorium, featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. The concert, conducted by Robert Lehmann, will showcase contralto Emily Marvosh in Johann Cristoph Bach’s “Lamento” and Caroline Shaw’s “Is a Rose.”
Founded in 1948, the orchestra is now in its 77th season of providing affordable access to classical music. The North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra is primarily staffed by volunteers. The group performs programs that span the full range of symphonic and Pops repertoire.Programs are funded in part through a grant from the Swampscott Cultural Council.
Marvosh recently appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. She will sing two works, a soulful lament by Johann Sebastian Bach’s cousin Johann Christoph Bach, as well as a new work by American composer Shaw, “Is a Rose.”
“’Is a Rose’ is a trilogy of songs set as an orchestral song-cycle composed in 2019,” said Lehmann. “It explores the themes of nature, love and fragility. The work features poetry by Robert Burns, Jacob Polley and Shaw herself. The cycle revolves around the rose as a symbol of beauty, transience, and memory. Shaw’s compositional style is a blend of neo-Baroque and contemporary idioms which seamlessly showcases ‘old’ music in a contemporary setting.”
The concert opens with Richard Strauss’ “Serenade.” Lehmann noted that Strauss, like Beethoven, paid respect to the Classical traditions in this charming piece that evokes the elegance of a bygone era.
The philharmonic will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, which Music Director Lehmann lauded as one of the composer’s “sunniest works, very much in the style of the great masters Haydn and Mozart.”
Lehmann said the symphony also “was a springboard into (Beethoven’s) own future compositional style, one that would break established molds of the Classical-era style and pave the way for the new ‘Romantic’ period.”
Tickets are available for purchase at nspo.org, and they will be available at the door on the day of the concert.
