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Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra to welcome spring with ‘Musical Landscapes’ concert

Courtesy Rexburg Taberncle Orchestra Facebook page
REXBURG — The beautiful sounds of spring will hang in the air when the Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra performs their free spring concert at the Rexburg Tabernacle Civic Center this Wednesday.
The theme for the concert is “Musical Landscapes” and the pieces selected will highlight how composers have represented their surrounding landscapes with sound. Dallin Hansen, who is serving as guest conductor for this show, said that he selected music he felt captured the feelings associated with spring.
“There’s such a feeling of hopefulness and anticipation here at the beginning of summer because there’s so much natural beauty around us here,” he said. “Throughout the centuries, the great composers of classical music have had really strong connections with nature and uncovering the connections we as human beings have with our natural world and how we can find meaning in life. So each of the pieces on the program features a way that a composer depicts landscapes in their own language.”
“Musical Landscapes” will primarily feature two pieces, Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, also known as “Pastoral,” and “The Norfolk Rhapsody” by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The pieces depict very different landscapes.
“‘The Norfolk Rhapsody’ is all about the sea, all about the ocean,” Hansen said. “(Williams) drew from several English folk songs that were gathered right in Norfolk in King’s Lynn right on the edge of the North Sea that were fishing songs or sailing songs or songs about life on the ocean. You can really see that depicted in the music. It’s very evocative.”
Meanwhile, the Beethoven piece depicts rural, country settings.
“On his ‘Symphony, No. 6’ (Beethoven) put subtitles to each movement that relate specifically to his feelings about being in nature, in the countryside, in the forest and by a brook,” said Hansen. “He even depicts a summer thunderstorm, with lightning and thunder and a shepherd out in a pasture.”
The concert will also include Dvorak’s “Romance for Violin and Orchestra”, a number that features a solo by violinist Jenni Warner. Hansen said that performing numbers that feature soloists requires conductors to make some adjustments.
“The work of the musicians in the orchestra is basically the same,” he said. “They have to work out their rhythms and their notes and make sure that, as a group, they’re feeling the tempo together and balancing things. The biggest challenge when we’re working with a soloist is that I have to follow the soloist as much as possible and the orchestra has to follow me. So there’s always a bit of a delayed line of leadership there.”
Hansen also hinted that since the show falls on May 4, concert attendees may be in for a musical surprise.
“If you know anything about our unofficial holiday on May the 4th, that’s probably all the hint you need,” he said. “We will be ending with some awesome movie music that you will recognize.”
The Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra will perform “Musical Landscapes” this Wednesday, May 4, at the Rexburg Tabernacle Civic Center at 7:30 pm. Admission is free. Keep in the loop with future arts events in Rexburg by visiting the Rexburg Arts website. Click here to follow the Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra on Facebook.

Jenni Waner and Dallin Hansen. Courtesy Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra Facebook page
The post Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra to welcome spring with ‘Musical Landscapes’ concert appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com

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