July 15 event at Redlands Bowl

“Fetta leads the Summer Festival Symphony for A Little Night Music”

“A Little Night Music” will waft through the summer evening at the Redlands Bowl on Tuesday, July 15, as the Summer Festival Symphony Orchestra plays for the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival’s 1,947th event.

With members of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Frank Fetta will present a program featuring virtuosic performances by the principal players. From the precise elegance of the Haydn symphony to the expansiveness of the Copland melodies, the music will provide the audience a picture of symphonic works scored for a small orchestra.

“We’re using only 28 players for this concert,” Fetta explained. “This small scoring allows for an elegant and clean sound.”

After opening the concert with works by Joaquin Rodrigo and Arthur Honegger, the concert will continue with Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, originally written for a ballet by Martha Graham. Considered to be the dean of American composers, Copland wrote music with a grand sound that has been emulated by movie music composers, according to Fetta. Into this work, Copland incorporated American folk tunes, including the Shaker tune of “Simple Gifts”.

The concert will close with Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, “La Reine”, written in 1785 for Marie Antoinette.

“Haydn wrote 104 symphonies,” Fetta said, “and every one of them is a gem. This work is particularly beautiful and buoyant, and it serves an orchestra of this size well.”

Written at the height of the Classical period when form was everything and compositions emphasized formal beauty, this piece is particularly well-written with a charming quality, Fetta added.

In the afternoon before the concert, Fetta will present the Children’s Summer Festival Workshop at the First Congregational Church at 2 W. Olive Avenue in Redlands, starting at 3:00 p.m. He will offer a program titled “Batons Up! How to lead the orchestra”. The workshop is open at no charge to all children from four and five to twelve years old.

The evening’s activities will begin at 7:20 p.m. with the Community Sing, led by Curtiss Allen, Sr. and accompanied by Kim Hoeptner on piano.

Representatives from Century 21 Lois Lauer Realty and members of the Sunrise Rotary Club will serve as ushers for the concert, and Redlands Community Music Association board member Paul Barich will be the intermission speaker.

All events of the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival are presented without an admission charge, with a free-will offering collected at intermission.

The Redlands Bowl is located at 25 Grant Street in Redlands between Grant and Eureka Streets, just south of Brookside Avenue. For directions and more information, contact the office at 909/793-7316 or view the website at www.redlandsbowl.org