Concert Program IV

ENHANCED: Tales Intensified

Music and stories have been intertwined throughout history. From the earliest operas to present-day cinema, music has added unrealized dimensions and intensity to drama. “Enhanced” explores four works that heighten the underlying drama. The program begins with a suite taken from Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score originally written for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho. André Caplet’s The Mask of the Red Death draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s dark short story. Respighi’s ethereal Il tramonto brings forth the sunny poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The program concludes with Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, based on a Russian folktale that tells the story of a soldier who is coerced into trading his violin to the devil.

Download concert program notes (pdf format).»

Program
Bernard HERRMANN (1911–1975): Psycho Suite for Strings (1960)
André CAPLET (1878–1925): The Mask of the Red Death (1922–1923)
Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879–1936): Il tramonto (1914)
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882–1971): Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) (1918)

Artists
Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano
Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
Marc Goldberg, bassoon
David Washburn, trumpet
Timothy Higgins, trombone
Adam Barnett-Hart, Jorja Fleezanis, Kristin Lee, Sean Lee, Wu Jie, violins
Paul Neubauer, Geraldine Walther, violas
Dmitri Atapine, Dane Johansen, cellos
Scott Pingel, bass
Bridget Kibbey, harp
Christopher Froh, percussion

Actors (appearing in Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale)
Kay Kostopoulos, Narrator; Max Rosenak, Soldier; James Carpenter, Devil

Sunday, July 29

6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Tickets: $65/$55 adult; $30/$20 student
Buy Now»

Prelude Performance*
4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Free Admission

* Prelude Performances feature young artists from the Chamber Music Institute. Admission is free. Learn more.»

Image: Sorcerers and witches on Sabbath dancing to violin, from Compendium Maleficarum, 1626, by Francesco Maria Guazzo, Italian demonologist. Photo credit: Alfredo Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY