Cal Poly Symphony Opens Season with ‘All Roads Lead to Bach’ Nov. 21

SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Cal Poly Symphony will feature music composed by and inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach in its Fall Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, in Sidney Harman Hall in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center.

The concert will begin with music from Disney’s “Fantasia” — J.S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” arranged by Leopold Stokowski. Symphony conductor David Arrivée said this transcription for large orchestra employs every trick in the orchestrator’s bag to turn a piece for solo organ into a showcase for a 20th century orchestra.

The Cal Poly Symphony will then be joined by Paul Severtson, co-concertmaster of the San Luis Obispo Symphony, and Brynn Albanese, violinist in Café Musique as well as several of the nation’s top orchestras, in a performance of Bach's “Concerto for Two Violins in D minor.”

The orchestra then will move to Bach’s musical legacy. Johannes Brahms wrote his "Fourth Symphony" in 1885, more than 100 years after Bach’s death but drew upon Baroque forms heavily. Most notably, the last movement is a chaconne, at the time a very outdated form in music, the repeating theme of which is adapted from a theme in Bach’s cantata, “Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich.”

Tickets for the concert are $6 for students, $8 and $10 for senior citizens, and $10 and $12 for the public. They are on sale at the Performing Arts Ticket Office 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. To order by phone, call SLO-ARTS (805-756-2787). Discounts are given to patrons who buy tickets to four or more Music Department season events.

The concert is sponsored by the Cal Poly Music Department, College of Liberal Arts and the Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, go to www.symphony.calpoly.edu, e-mail music@calpoly.edu or call 805-756-2406.

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