Ann Arbor Orchestra Presents Latin Fire

This concert continues the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra's season of local connections and collaborations— Peter Sparling Dance Gallery performs the world premiere of three original dances to De Falla's Three-Cornered Hat Suite No. 2. Grammy-winning guitarist David Russell joins the symphony for Rodrigo's Concerto Aranjuez and Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto.

This concert marks the second time that the Ann Arbor Symphony has commissioned Peter Sparling Dance Company to create choreography for a piece. The first was to celebrate the A2SO's 75th anniversary with dramatic choreography to Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suite in March 2004. That collaboration was such a success, both entities have been eager to create another piece together.

A?SO Music Director Arie Lipsky says, "the blend of traditional and contemporary pieces will make Ann Arbor want to get up and dance."

Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez Blinded by diphtheria at age three, Rodrigo saw through music. He described this concerto as capturing "the fragrance of magnolias, the singing birds and the gushing of fountains." The brilliant fusion of a quintessentially Spanish style with Rodrigo's gift of melody helped the piece become one of the most popular 20th-Century concerti ever written.

Vivaldi Concerto for Guitar in D major is one of Vivaldi's most enjoyable and familiar works. The piece actually began as a Trio Sonata, not a Guitar Concerto. It has since become one of the composer's most enjoyable and familiar works. From the slow opening movement to the last movement's carefree jig, the piece has become an audience favorite.

de Falla El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) Suite 2 - Originally composed as music for a mime-play, the piece tells the story of the ill-fated attempts by the magistrate of a small Spanish town to seduce the pretty wife of the local miller. Suite two is set in an Andalusian night filled with the perfume of flowers and the rhythm of guitars. An ensuing comedy of errors and mistaken identity unfolds.

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra has commissioned Jeff Myers to compose a piece for this concert. The name of the work is Liberation. This will be the world premiere of this work based on the famous M.C. Escher graphic of the same name, alive with the use of paradox, illusion, motion and humanity. -- www.a2so.com