In Residence at Raritan Valley Community College
By Chris Jensen
The Central Jersey Symphony will present its Winter Concert titled “From the British Isles” at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Princeton Junction, NJ on Sunday, March 4th at 3:00 p.m. On the program for the afternoon concert will be Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Edward Elgar’s Chansons, Beethoven’s Symphony # 4, and Arnold Bax’s quintet for oboe and strings. The CJSO’s principal oboist, Alan Birnbaum, will be the featured soloist.
The concert overture The Hebrides (German: Die Hebriden), Op. 26, also known as Fingal’s Cave (die Fingalshöhle), was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830. The piece was inspired by a cavern known as Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides archipelago located off the west coast of Scotland. As is common with Romantic era pieces, this is not an overture in the sense that it precedes a play or opera; the piece is a concert overture, a stand-alone musical selection, and has now become part of standard orchestral repertoire. The piece was dedicated to King Frederick William IV (then Crown Prince of Prussia). The name Fingal’s Cave seems so appropriate; for the opening strains in the bassoons and strings clearly suggest the incoming rushes of waves of the sea into the cave and the ebbing of the same.
Chanson de Matin, Op. 15, No. 2, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar for violin and piano, and later orchestrated by the composer. Its first publication was in 1899, though it is thought that it was almost certainly written in 1889 or 1890. It has invited comparison with its "companion" piece, Chanson de Nuit, Op. 15, No. 1, and though critically it has been described as less profound, its fresh melodic appeal has made it more popular. The orchestral version of the work was published two years later, and first performed, together with Chanson de Nuit, at a Queens Hall Promenade Concert conducted by Henry Wood on 14 September 1901.
Arnold Bax (8 Nov 1883 – 3 Oct 1953) is best known for his tone poems, which take their subject matter from Celtic myth and scenery. However, his compositions in many genres reflect Bax’s obsession with Ireland and Britain. The Quintet, dedicated to the British oboist Leon Goossens, is no exception to this, featuring folk-like melodies which invoke England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, op. 60 is a creation that found no justice, considered to be an intermediary symphony between Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 5. The story of its appearance is pretty uncertain because no drafts remained. We only know it was written while Beethoven was working on Symphony No.5 . Nevertheless, it can be considered a study on the problematic of classical symphony. The freshness and spontaneity of the themes, the lack of tragic motives, and the perfection of the form triggered the enthusiasm of his contemporaries. German composer Robert Schumann was comparing it to “a supple Greek girl, standing in between two giants from the West”, while Mendelssohn Bartholdy chose it to be performed at his first concert at Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Tickets for the performance are $20, $15 for seniors and $10 for students, and are available by contacting [email protected] or at the door on the concert date.
The Central Jersey Symphony is funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through funds administered by the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission’s Local Arts Program.
Contact: Michael Avagliano
(732) 939-4294
[email protected]

