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Health & Fitness

Lake Forest's community orchestra, the North Suburban Symphony, presents music by German masters on Sunday, Nov. 18

A competent violist in his own right, Maestro Arden will join players of the North Suburban Symphony in J.S. Bach's "Musical Offering,"


Coming up for your enjoyment on Sunday, November 18, following the huge success of its opening  2012 - 2013 season concert celebrating American Jazz and Symphonic Pops on October 7th, the North Suburban Symphony will present its second concert of the "Around the World" season at Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest on Sunday, November 18, at 4:00 p.m., featuring a triumvirate of German masters, Bach, Handel and Brahms.  Bach and Handel were born in the same year, 1685, while Brahms followed almost a century and a half later.

Ron Arden has served as Conductor and Music Director of the North Suburban Symphony, a community orchestra based in Lake Forest and sponsored by the Lake Bluff Park District, since 2006. Under his leadership, the orchestra rejuvenated and grown musically to be one of the north shore's finest ensembles.

Also a competent violist in his own right, Maestro Arden will join other individual players of the North Suburban Symphony in J.S. Bach's "Musical Offering," a collection of of canons and fugues, all based on a single musical theme given to Bach by Frederick the Great of Prussia during Bach's meeting with Frederick II at his palace in Potsdam, Germany, on May 7, 1737. 

This work by Bach is rarely performed because of it's tremendous progressive harmonies and complicated structure. The ten short movements to be heard are editor realizations of the original music that called for period instruments of Bach's time.

Following J.S. Bach on the program will be a performance of G.F. Handel's "Royal Fireworks Suite."  Originally a wind band suite, it was composed by Handel in1749, under commission by George II of Great Britain, to celebrate the peace of Aix-la-Chappelle declared the previous year. 

The music was to provide a background for the royal fireworks.  The music was a success, but the fireworks caused the specially-constructed, enormous wooden building in which the musicians were performing to catch fire. Havoc resulted, along with a three-hour traffic jam of carriages, prompted when the thousands attending the event engaged in a mass exit.

As fitting the joyful occasion, the movements of the Handel's Royal Fireworks Suite are pleasing to the ear, having delighted concert-goers throughout the ages. You won't be disappointed. 

Jumping ahead almost 150 years, Johannes Brahms will now take center stage as the NSS features the last of its triumvirate presentation of German composers, performing three of Brahm's set of twenty "Hungarian Dances", numbers 5, 6, and 7. 

Completed in 1869, the lively dance tunes are based mostly on traditional Hungarian folk song. Varying from about a minute to four minutes in length, Brahm's "Hungarian Dances" are among his most popular works and also his most profitable.  They are sure to delight you, with their frequent changes in mood, intensity, and character.  It has been said that Brahm's "Hungarian Dances" were influential in the development of ragtime. 

Why not bring your entire family to enjoy a concert, at a price you can afford, right here in your own back yard? 

Ticket prices: Adult, $18; Seniors/Students, $10; Children under 12 free with adult ticket purchase.  Tickets are available at the door.

Check out our new website at www.northsuburbansymphony.org.

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