The Concord Orchestra and the town’s other music group, Concord Chamber Orchestra, are the exceptions to the rule of Boston Musical Intelligencer to contain our normal listing and reviewing in the regular season to venues within Route 128. This is because the Concord Orchestra was the first offering of the 2008-2009 season when we began, and our eagerness to offer our services overcame geographical limitations. Also, UMass Professor David Patterson was available. Not only our first, he has proven to be our most prolific reviewer.  The Concord Orchestra under Richard Pittman is presenting its 2011 winter concert, “New Talent, New Work” on Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 29.  The concert features a concerto played by Yoko Ellie Fukumura of Newton, the winner of the 2011 Ehler’s Young Artist Competition, and a world premiere by Bernard Hoffer. 

Fukumura will perform Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major by Franz Liszt.  The concerto was first performed in 1855, with Liszt as soloist and Berlioz conducting. Unlike the three movements of a traditional concerto, its four sections are performed without pause as one continuous symphonic poem.

Concert master Siri Smedvig will be the soloist in the world premiere of Elegy for Solo Violin and String Orchestra by Bernard Hoffer. His Six by George, an arrangement of Gershwin tunes, and his Fanfare in honor of Maestro Pittman have previously been performed by the Concord Orchestra. Elegy is an extension and elaboration of a scene from Hoffer’s 2008 ballet Sadako, about a Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing and attempted to fold a thousand paper cranes before she died of leukemia. The solo violin has the theme played in the ballet by a koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument.

In 2008 and 2009, some of Hoffer’s dear friends died, and in the fall of 2009 he wrote Elegy in their memory. Subsequently, both his mother and his wife of forty-two years passed away, so the performance is to be dedicated to them.

The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in e minor.

Concerts are Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 29 at 8:00 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden Street, Concord.   Check BMInt “Upcoming Events” for more information.