Fellow citizens…
Sun, Oct 16, 2022 at 3pm
Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church
- Barbara Yahr, conductor
- Helen-Jean Arthur, speaker
Bernstein Overture to Candide
Copland Lincoln Portrait
Beethoven Symphony No. 8
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.”
The GVO opens its 2022–23 season with a celebration of the words of Abraham Lincoln and three timeless masterworks from the classical repertoire.
Founding Member of the GVO and acclaimed New York actor Helen-Jean Arthur takes the stage as speaker in Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, a work that resonates with ever increasing significance in our “stormy present”. Copland’s soaring melodies and open harmonies along with Leonard Bernstein’s piquant musical language helped define the 20th century’s classical sound. We open with one of Bernstein’s most popular pieces, the sparkling overture to Voltaire’s satire, Candide. Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony was written at the pinnacle of his career, and its moments of levity and creativity are both tributes to his teacher Joseph Haydn and prescient nods to the future of the art form.