Message from Edward Cumming

“Spring in Bloom”

Spring concerts are popular with orchestras around the globe, and it’s not unusual to find programs with Copland’s Appalachian Spring, or “La Primavera,” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  These pieces are brimming with optimism and hope, which is just what we all need after a long winter.   

But this program with the New Britain Symphony Orchestra is something different entirely, because we are taking the spring theme to another level, where many of us occupy ourselves once the ground has thawed:  our garden.  Growing up in Northern California, I never quite understood the northeastern preoccupation with the four seasons — in my native Oakland, winter was mild, and the spring was a little bit warmer — that’s it!  But here . . . spring is a heavily anticipated event, after the snow has melted, and the pansies, viburnums and forsythia begin to appear.

And so, in addition to Copland and Vivaldi, we are going to play music about the things we might encounter when we are taking a walk in the woods, or along a babbling brook, during which we might hear some unusual birds, chatting with each other.  In the slow movement (‘Scene by the brook’) of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, there is a lovely moment near the end, when a nightingale, quail and cuckoo bird exhibit their unique ways of communicating with each other, through the eyes and ears of LvB.  Smetana’s Moldau is about the Bohemian river Vltava: starting with a babbling brook, after which the river gradually begins to widen, allowing us to take an enchanted boat ride, where we encounter a village band, a waterfall, moonlit water nymphs, and a wedding scene along the shore. 

But I am particularly excited that you will hear the magnificent young violinist, Sirena Huang, who was already a major talent as a teenager; now, fresh on the heels of her first prize in the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, the Windsor native will be coming home to play Vivaldi and Saint-Saëns, just for you.  She is a star. 

Please come — you won’t want to find out afterwards what you missed! 

     —–Edward