MASON CITY – The North Iowa Symphony Orchestra (NISO) continues its long tradition of service to the musical life of North Iowa with a Fall Concert on Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30pm in the North Iowa Community Auditorium. The concert will feature Modest Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. This piece has a prominent place in both symphonic and popular music as one of the traditional “scary” pieces in symphonic literature. A Night on Bald Mountain was made famous along with many other orchestral masterpieces in Walt Disney’s Fantasia. Fantasia is the iconic animated work that introduced so many people to the wide range of orchestral music and Disney’s rich imagination. Mussorgsky’s work portrays spirits and spooks in a night of terror on the bare mountain through musical ideas that are still used in pop culture today. The main theme will be heard on television and at football games when the object is to put a fright into the audience (opponent). The audience should not fear because when the chime sounds to signify dawn, we see that we have all weathered the storm and lived to see another sunrise. The orchestra will be assisted in our triumph over the forces of evil by our guest harpist who will help ring in the new day and musically symbolize our victory.
The guest harpist will also help us usher in the winter season with his contribution to the orchestra’s performance of Music from Frozen. The orchestra will conclude the concert with tunes from the animated film which is also a smash hit Disney favorite. Tunes like “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and “Let It Go” are sure to put a festive glow on the chilly season ahead.
In addition to these audience favorites, the orchestra will feature its brass, winds and percussion on Alfred Reed’s “A Festival Prelude.”
The NISO strings will be featured in selections from Gustav Holst’s “Saint Paul Suite” and a movement from Mozart’s “String Quartet No. 17.”
The strings will be joined by winds and brass to perform Mozart’s Overture to the Opera “The Magic Flute.” “The Magic Flute” is one of Mozart’s most popular works and contains much of the rich symbolism that dominated Mozart’s time. It is not the symbolism, however, but the wonderful tunefulness and rhythmic spirit of Mozart that has kept this work popular through the centuries.
Please join the North Iowa Symphony Orchestra and its director Richard Chitty for a wonderful evening of fun, fantasy and beautiful music on Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30 PM in the North Iowa Community Auditorium for its celebration of A Frozen Night on Bald Mountain. Tickets are $5 and available at the door.
