FARMINGTON – Steven Pane, UMF professor of music, takes center stage at University of Maine at Farmington when the UMF Community Orchestra presents its fall concert at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, Dec. 11, in Nordica Auditorium.
|
|
Pane, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, N.Y., and at universities across the United States, will be the soloist in Beethoven’s brilliant Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as the “Emperor.” Under the direction of Trond Saeverud, the orchestra will also perform Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, the “Great.”
According to Saeverud, this most monumental of Beethoven’s concerti was composed at a time of war and conflict. Beethoven was personally affected and complained about, “the disturbing, wild life around me; nothing but drums, cannons, men, misery of all sorts.” Consequently, some listeners find strong military elements in the concerto, especially in the first movement and in the unusual “tiefpunkt” before the end of the finale, where piano and timpani combine in a dramatic ritardando. Between the energetic, extrovert outer movements is the needed contrast—one of Beethoven’s most beautiful and meditative slow movements.
Schubert’s Ninth Symphony is even more monumental than the Beethoven concerto, yet it might never have been performed if Robert Schumann had not discovered the manuscript at Schubert’s brother’s home and arranged for a first performance, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. At the time, not many shared Schumann’s enthusiasm for the symphony’s “heavenly length,” and performances were, typically, of one or two movements. Over time, audiences and performers came to recognize the work as Schubert’s most significant symphonic achievement.
Trond Saeverud, director of the UMF Community Orchestra and instructor of violin, has performed as violin soloist with major orchestras in Europe and in the United States, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center in New York City. Currently, he is concertmaster of the Bangor Symphony, first violin in the Nor’easter String Quartet, artistic director of the Harald Saeverud Chamber Music Program and founder and conductor of the new Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra with musicians from Canada and the United States.
The concert is open to the public and tickets are available at the door the night of the performance at $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, and free for children under 12 and UMF students with I.D. For more information, please contact the UMF Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry at 207-778-7072, or robin.palmermosher@maine.edu.
