NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Jan. 15.
In a chamber concert, where the orchestra and the hall are smaller, you not only hear each nuance in the music, you also see the emotion on the players’ faces.
During a Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra rehearsal earlier this week, such feeling shone clearly, as did Edvard Grieg’s “Two Elegiac Melodies,” part of the ensemble’s program tonight and Saturday.
In a pair of concerts, the 22-member Chamber Orchestra and conductor Jonathan Pasternack will also offer another Grieg piece, his “Suite from Holberg’s Time,” along with Mozart’s Symphony in D major.
Then there is the centerpiece, Domenico Cimarosa’s Concerto for Two Flutes, featuring co-principals Judy Johnson and Sharon Snel.
Performances
These first concerts of 2016 will take place tonight at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave. in Port Angeles, and Saturday at the Sequim Worship Center, 640 N. Sequim Ave.
Both performances will start at 7 p.m., with tickets at $12 for general admission, while the Port Angeles Symphony, in its ongoing bid to expand its audience, offers free admission to those 16 and younger when accompanied by an adult.
“The Cimarosa is a very flirty, happy musical romp,” said Johnson, who comes from Port Ludlow to play with the orchestra.
“Performing this particular concerto with my friend and fellow collaborator, Sharon Snel, is a delightful start to a wonderful musical year on the Peninsula,” she added.
The women are known for their music played across and beyond the region.
While Johnson has been a member of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, Snel has devoted the past three decades to performing with the Port Angeles Symphony, the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra and other ensembles around Puget Sound, all while teaching a variety of students in her Port Angeles flute studio.
Pasternack, for his part, calls the Concerto for Two Flutes an ideal showcase for the pair.
Historian that he is, the conductor offered a bit of background: The piece was written in 1793, after Cimarosa returned home from a trip to Vienna.
There, the Italian composer soaked up a cultural scene still reverberating with the musical spirit and innovations of Mozart, who had died just two years before.
In that spirit, Pasternack chose to conclude this weekend’s concerts with what he calls a Mozartean gem, the Symphony in D Major.
Tickets available
Tickets for tonight and Saturday’s performances will be available at the door, and those who want to purchase in advance have a choice of outlets. These include Port Angeles’ Port Book and News, 104 E. First St.; Sequim’s The Good Book, 108 W. Washington St.; and Sequim Village Glass, 761 Carlsborg Road.
Information about these concerts and the rest of the 2016 season can be found at www.PortAngelesSymphony.org and the symphony office at 360-457-5579.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
