One look at the program titles for Allegro: The Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster should tell you this is not classical business as usual. The ensemble opens its seventh season Saturday, June 14 with “WHO??” featuring less-than-familiar works by (mostly) less-than-familiar composers, according to Brian Norcross, Allegro’s music director. Two of J.S. Bach’s sons are represented: Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach’s Symphony No. 3, and Johann Christian Bach’s Overture to La Clemenza di Scipione. A work by Arlen Clarke, Nocturne for Julia, composed in memory of the ensemble’s very first donor, Julia Oliver, was premiered last year but will be repeated this year to allow her son to attend the performance, Norcross said. Also on the program is Carl Maria von Weber’s Symphony No. 1 and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (this time, you don’t have to ask “who”) with Dara Burkholder Morales as soloist. Morales, who graduated from Ephrata High School in 1992, is now a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“There are some really fine oboe players in the area,” said Norcross, hence the idea for the July 12 program, “Too Many Oboes.” All the works feature two or more oboes or related instruments: Handel’s Concerto a due cori No. 1 in B flat, Mozart’s Divertimento No. 1 (which calls for two oboes and two English horns) and his Symphony No. 38, and Telemann’s Concerto in B-flat Major for 3 oboes and 3 violins.
The Aug. 9 concert, with its 20th century works, will be a “bold departure from the norm,” Norcross said. The orchestra, which concentrates on works from the 17th and 18th centuries, will be performing Ottorino Respighi’s The Birds, which is based on 16th century lute pieces and Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastorale, will also be on the program.
Concerts are at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at Barshinger Hall, on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College. Check here for ticket prices.
