Pasadena Symphony Performs Dec. 10

Those wishing to expand their repertoire of Christmas Carols beyond “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls” this holiday season may want to consider joining The Pasadena Symphony on December 10 when it presents British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Joining the orchestra on stage for this performance are baritone Ralph Wells and the Combined Choirs of Occidental College.

Although Vaughan Williams’ work is not as well known as the carols traditionally associated with Christmas, members of the audience will recognize fragments of holiday standards throughout the performance. Written in 1912 for the Hereford Three Choirs Festival, the Fantasia incorporates melodies from a variety of regional English carols and madrigals, which Vaughan Williams discovered while editing the English Hymnal.

“It’s a treat for anyone who loves beautiful choral music,” says David Vernier, editor of Classics Today.

“The work evokes the whole range of emotions that surround this time of year,” says Jeffrey Bernstein, assistant conductor of The Pasadena Symphony. Bernstein who is also Director of Choral Music at Occidental College. “The piece progresses from a quiet sense of awed tradition, wonder and mystery to a full outpouring of hope and joy as the chorus and orchestra soar together gloriously. At the end, you are overcome with a feeling of well-being and peace -- a great gift to give yourself during this hectic holiday season.”

Baritone Ralph Wells has performed more than 40 operatic roles with major symphony orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States. A recipient of numerous awards, including the Petri Scholarship for European Study, he also won the San Francisco Opera Auditions, which led to his later touring nationally with Western Opera Theater in a production of Puccini’s “La Bohème.”

The Combined Choirs of Occidental College last appeared with The Pasadena Symphony for a sold-out performance of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” in December 2004. The choirs have performed throughout Southern California, with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, the Pasadena POPS, the Santa Monica Symphony, the Glendale Symphony, the Caltech Orchestra and the Orchestra Camerata.

Lizst’s Les Preludes, which opens the concert, was first written as the introduction to a choral cantata. Lizst’s work is widely considered to be the most popular of his 13 symphonic poems. In fact, fans of the serial Flash Gordon may be intrigued to learn that “Les Preludes” was included in the soundtrack for “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.”

“The score has also conquered legions of classical music fans,” says Tom O’Connor, executive director of The Pasadena Symphony. “And this performance is our holiday gift to them. Les Preludes is rarely performed in a live concert setting.”

Music lovers who favor tuneful music with strong melodies will not be disappointed as Music Director Jorge Mester and violinist Elmar Oliveira ‘unwrap’ Max Bruch’s most frequently performed work, the Violin Concerto No. 1.

Elmar Oliveira, the only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition, is also the first violinist to receive the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and First Prizes at the Naumburg International and G. B. Dealey Competitions.

The Dec. 10 concert concludes by bringing Rome to those who cannot incorporate a trip to the Vatican for Christmas Eve services into their holiday celebrations. A musical snapshot of the centuries-old trees that dominate Rome’s landscape, Ottorino Respighi’s The Pines of Rome is famous for being one of the first compositions to incorporate electronics into its orchestration: the composer instructed that a recording of a nightingale be played at the end of the 3rd movement. Legend has it that the original recording -- still supplied, to this day, by the Concert Record Gramophone Company -- was recorded by Respighi, himself.