Message from the Conductor

The end of the year approaches, and it’s time to celebrate a Holiday Feast with family, friends, and the GSO!For Appetizer, we have Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture. This vivacious music, with its rapidly changing meter and sophisticated instrumentation, including harp, full brass, and extensive percussion, make the Candide Overture the best curtain raiser of all time!For the Soup, Bedřich Smetana composed The Moldau to depict two springs in the Bohemian Forest merging into a stream that becomes the mighty river, flowing through lowlands and villages toward Prague, to be welcomed by Vysěhrad castle. Also from GSO’s Czech kitchen, we present Antonín Dvořák’s Silent Woods, a deep, warm, and charming piece for cello and orchestra.How could we call it a Feast without a classical, royal touch? Our Holiday Entrée starts with the first movement of Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major, served by GSO’s guest cellist, Lars Kirvan. This gem, with its stately and majestic presence, was lost and only rediscovered in 1961. It perfectly symbolizes the brilliant Esterhazy court, for which Haydn was Kapellmeister for many years.Danielle Mileham and her marvelous treble chorus from the Oakfield-Alabama Central School have prepared Christmas and Hanukkah melodies for our guests. Side dishes? Of course! We have Mikhail Glinka’s Russlan and Ludmilla Overture and selections from the Snow Maiden Suite of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, all fine examples of Russian musical cuisine.For Dessert, you will have the first taste of GSO’s Polar Express Suite, with a new vocal arrangement sung by the spirits of the treble chorus.On December 6^th, we will welcome you, your family and guests at St. Mary’s! Reserve your seats NOW!- Yunn-Shan Ma, your Guest Chef on the Podium