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Chequamegon Symphony Orchestra to perform The Late Great Symphonies

October 31, 2011

The Chequamegon Symphony Orchestra will present "Haydn and Mozart: The Late Great Symphonies" on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alvord Theatre at Northland College. The event, another offering in the Northland College Community Connections series, is open to the public. Tickets will be available at the door. The price for admission runs from $1.00 to $5.00. Discounts are available for students and seniors.

The program will feature the 100th of the 104 symphonies of Haydn (1732-1809) and the 41st, and final, of the 41 symphonies produced by Mozart (1756-1791).

"As the listener might expect, these two works, are among the greatest musical masterpieces of these composers," says Joel Glickman, Music Director at Northland College. "The two symphonies on this program are about half-hour affairs for a small to medium-sized orchestra. In keeping with the taste of their time, they blend clarity and tunefulness with more dramatic elements. Judging from world-wide concert and recording repertoire, they have never gone out of style and perhaps never will."

Haydn wrote 104 symphonies during his career while Mozart wrote 41 symphonies during his lifetime. During the 17th and 18th centuries, orchestras gradually began increasing in size and variety of instrumentation. As a result, orchestral movements became longer and more complex. Symphonies took increasingly more time and energy to compose. Haydn, of necessity, wrote frequently and on demand for his employer Prince Paul Anton of the wealthy Esterhazy family.

The Chequamegon Symphony Orchestra is a college and community organization. An important part of the orchestra's mission is to provide orchestral performances that enrich the cultural life of northern Wisconsin at a price that minimizes financial barriers to attendance.