Redwood Symphony Opens Its 28th Season Saturday

The Redwood Symphony will open its 28th season on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. in the Main Theater. A pre-concert lecture by Eric Kujawsky beings at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for adults ($25 at the door) and $10 for students. Everyone 17 and under are admitted free. Staff, faculty, and students at Cañada College are also admitted free.

The season begins with a little-known delight: Troka, a piece by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, created to accompany a children's puppet show. Listeners may well think of another composer: Carl Stallings, who wrote most of the music for the classic Looney Tunes.

Like Stallings, Revueltas wrote a zany score that borrows heavily from well-known works, replete with startling transitions and “wrong” notes. You’ll laugh when you hear it!

* The Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato's “Symposium“) is a five-movement concerto written by Leonard Bernstein in 1954. The Serenade is highly unusual in that the composer was inspired by Plato's Symposium, a dialogue of related statements in praise of love, each statement made by a distinguished speaker. The five speakers who inspired Bernstein's five movements are as follows, together with his musical markings:

1. Phaedrus: Pausanias -- marked lento and allegro
2. Aristophanes -- marked allegretto
3. Eryximachus, the doctor -- marked presto
4. Agathon -- marked adagio
5. Socrates -- marked molto tenuto and allegro molto vivace

Essentially a five-movement violin concerto, the Serenade showcases a huge percussion section and Bernstein’s characteristic propulsive rhythmic drive.

Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 needs no introduction; the composer’s final symphony is beloved all over the world for its moving themes and autumnal qualities. The third movement is famous for the only appearances of piccolo and triangle in a Brahms symphony, while the finale is a monumental set of variations on a repeating chord progression.