Symphony explores French Connections

Symphony Central Coast will explore French Connections at its next concert on July 7 with music inspired by the Roaring Twenties.

Paris in the 1920s was the place to be for musicians, artists, writers and creatives of all types – a real cultural melting pot.

The “crazy years” drew writers like Hemingway, Yeats and Pound.

Artists developed dadaism, surrealism, cubism and futurism.

It was the home of Picasso, Modigliani, Duchamp and Satie, Ravel and Stravinsky.

Symphony Central Coast will dip into the middle of that scene, with a few different glimpses and perspectives of a vibrant period of history, complete with all the excitement, energy and effervescence of the time.

There is rebellion, sarcasm, dry wit and hard work in Sergei Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto.

The opening has shimmering delicacy and the middle section has infectious energy, with the soloist sounding like a mesmerising gypsy fiddler with many string crossings and double/triple stopped chords as the rhythms threaten to send the music off the rails.

The finale reveals a pensive and beautiful grazioso as the work comes dreamily to an ethereal close.

Violinist Karina Moss-Hollands will capture all this and more.

Nadia Boulanger began teaching composition at the Paris Conservatoire: her first American pupil was Aaron Copland.

Realising that a ‘modern’ style was not attractive to many audiences, he deliberately wrote ‘accessible’ and popular music, creating what many consider to be the sound of American music.

His ballet Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man display optimism, grandeur and sentimentality and, above all, are built on memorable melodies.

George Gershwin arrived in 1928, hoping to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that classical studies would ruin his jazz-influenced style.

He composed An American in Paris while staying at the Majestic Hotel, capturing the sound of the Paris taxis as they circled the Place de l’Étoile.

A study in form, rather than melody or harmony, Ravel’s Bolero began as a one finger tune on the piano.

“Don’t you think this is insistent?” he asked a friend.

“I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can.”

He predicted that orchestras would refuse to play it; history shows otherwise.

Guest conductor for this concert will be Chris Hunt, well-known to Central Coast Grammar School families.

French Connections will be performed at Central Coast Grammar School Performing Arts Centre, Arundel Rd, Erina Heights, at 2.30pm on Sunday, July 7.

But tickets at www.symphonycentralcoast.com.au