By Peter Alexander
Cynthia Katsarelis. Photo by Glenn Ross.
Pro Musica Colorado, the professional chamber orchestra directed by Cynthia Katsarelis, has told us “Stories” and taken us on “Journeys” in their past seasons. But there is no theme for 2014–15.
“Sometimes in classical music, when you’re putting together beautiful programs, the pieces are perfect together, but you can’t come up with a great theme,” Katsarelis explains.
That particularly seems true of the first concert of Pro Musica’s season, which will be performed Friday in Denver and Saturday in Boulder (7:30 p.m. both nights; season information). The program comprises three pieces with no evident connection among them: Sibelius’ tone poemRakastava for strings and percussion, Samuel Barber’s deeply moving setting of James Agee’s prose poem Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and chamber orchestra, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.
Read more in Boulder Weekly.
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Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra
Amanda Balastrieri, soprano soloist in “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”
Cynthia Katsarelis, Music Director
With Amanda Balastrieri, soprano
Jean Sibelius: Rakastava
Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Mozart: Symphony No. 39
7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 17, Montview Presbyterian, Denver
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, First United Methodist, Boulder
Sharps & Flatirons 