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Orchestra Lineup Is Out Of This World

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By KATHY L. GREENBERG Tribune correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2008

TAMPA - The Florida Orchestra will celebrate celestial bodies this month with "Holst: The Planets," part of the Progress Energy Masterworks series. Under the direction of Stefan Sanderling, the orchestra's music director and conductor, the show will also feature the Women's Chorus of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.

Between 1914 and 1916, British composer Gustav Holst created a seven-movement orchestral suite inspired by the planets in our solar system. As a devotee of astrology, Holst wrote the scores according to each planet's emotional influence.

He called the following "a series of mood pictures": Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, the Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; and Neptune, the Mystic. Pluto is noticeably absent, as the dwarf planet wasn't discovered until 1930.

His music articulates the full force of the cosmos and its unfathomable mysteries.

"If you stand outside and consider how vast the universe is, that kind of scale and that kind of sense of wonder are captured in this music," said the orchestra's artistic administrator, David Rogers.

Holst never considered "The Planets Suite" his best work, yet it became his most popular.

The orchestra will open the show with Claude Debussy's "Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun" and "Nocturnes - Nuages and Fetes."

"Debussy is not literally 20th century music, but in a lot of ways, especially with the prelude, it's considered seminal to what became 20th century work," Rogers said. "It's so startlingly different for that era's 19th century work; it was really a decade or two ahead of its time. It sort of fits with Holst in that regard."

More in November with The Florida Orchestra:

"Appalachian Spring," Nov. 21-23 (Progress Energy Masterworks series)

In this all-American program, guest conductor Edwin Outwater makes his Florida Orchestra debut with Aaron Copland's musical portrait of a young family forging a new life on the prairie. Copland originally composed the piece for Martha Graham and her dance company in 1944. It has since become an anthem for nostalgic reflection of America's spirited frontier. The orchestra will also perform Samuel Barber's "Essay No. 2," and pianist William Wolfram will present John Corigliano's Concerto for Piano.

Time for Three: Fiddles on Fire, Nov. 28-30 (Raymond James SuperPops series)

This young trio attended Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music before taking the country by storm with its dynamic and innovative performances. It started out as three guys getting together to jam between classes, and now, as Time for Three (or Tf3), they play more than 100 engagements nationally each year. Violinists Zachary DePue and Nicolas Kendall and double bassist Ranaan Meyer compose, arrange and improvise a fusion of jazz, pop, gypsy, classics and bluegrass. It's like nothing and everything you've ever heard, all rolled into one.

ORCHESTRA PREVIEW

Holst: The Planets

WHEN AND WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9, Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater

HOW MUCH: $19 to $65; 1-800-662-3331; www.floridaorches tra.org

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