Love And Comedy Take Center Stage

On Saturday, January 27 at 8:00 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, acclaimed conductor Carlos Kalmar leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in an evening of music inspired by the great playwright William Shakespeare. This celebration of the Bard's work features Nicolai's spirited Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor and Tchaikovsky's dramatic and deftly woven Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.

Additionally, Edward Elgar's symphonic poem Falstaff will receive its BSO premiere. Between each work, actors from Washington, D.C.'s renowned Shakespeare Theatre Company add the "twist" to this Symphony with a Twistâ„¢ concert, performing scenes upon which each composition is based. Please note: This program opens on January 26 at the Music Center at Strathmore, where it is part of the Shakespeare in Washington Festival. See below for complete program information.

The Overture to Otto Nicolai's opera The Merry Wives of Windsor opens the program. The opera is an adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy of the same name, which the Bard wrote to fulfill Queen Elizabeth I's request for a play about Sir John Falstaff's adventures in love. The result was signature Shakespeare, complete with mistaken identities, mischievous ruses and other farcical scenarios. With spirited themes and memorable melodies, the comic opera is considered Nicolai's great masterpiece.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet is rife with the pathos of tragic love, evoking the main themes of Shakespeare's most famous love story. The work opens with a solemn, Russian-flavored motif representing the beneficent Friar Lawrence, before giving way to a fierce theme depicting the feuding Montague and Capulet families. Finally, the woodwinds and violas present a soaring, passionate melody symbolizing the star-crossed lovers before four abrupt chords signal the couple's tragic end.

Like Nicolai, Sir Edward Elgar took on the character Sir John Falstaff, but Elgar's tone poem offers a markedly different interpretation of the portly knight. Though a comic and sometimes brutish buffoon in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Elgar's Falstaff is a noble gentleman, devoted to his Prince Hal. With a waddling theme in the lower strings depicting the fat Falstaff, the work chronicles his adventures through to his death, purportedly of a broken heart after the newly ascended King Hal repays Falstaff's service by banishing him upon pain of death. With dynamic orchestration and lyrical interludes, Elgar considered Falstaff among his finest works.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Symphony with a Twistâ„¢ is an eclectic concert experience - all with a twist that makes this series popular among symphony veterans and newcomers alike. Symphony with a Twistâ„¢ highlights drama, dance, humor and surprise to create a unique celebration of both classical masterpieces and lesser known repertoire. As with all Twist performances, the lobby opens at 6:30 p.m. with pre-concert live jazz, and martini and tapas bars.

Carlos Kalmar, conductor

Carlos Kalmar was appointed music director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in 2003, and is also the music director of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Until recently, he was also music director of Vienna's Tonkunstlerorchester. During his career, he has been music director of the Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany.

His international conducting appearances have included the Berlin Radio Symphony, the National Orchestra of Spain, the ORT Orchestra of Florence, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Hamburg State Opera, the BBC Welsh, the Residentie, the Vienna State Opera, the Yomiuri Japan Orchestra, the Flemish Radio, and the Zurich Opera, among others.

Mr. Kalmar's most recent recordings include the 2006 release of the Szymanowski, Martinů and Bartók Violin Concertos with the Grant Park Orchestra and Jennifer Koh.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company

Heralded as "the nation's foremost Shakespeare company" by The Wall Street Journal and "the best classical theatre in the country, bar none" by The Christian Science Monitor, the Shakespeare Theatre Company annually produces five plays in its 451-seat theatre in Washington, D.C.'s Pennsylvania Quarter and one free play in Rock Creek Park's 3,700-seat Carter Barron Amphitheatre. Artistic Director Michael Kahn has led the organization for 20 years, establishing a reputation for artistic excellence on stage as well as a series of community-minded education programs. In 1999, the company established the Academy for Classical Acting, a one-year MFA Acting program in conjunction with The George Washington University. -- www.baltimoresymphony.org