On Friday, January 27, in Bellows Falls, and Sunday, January 29, in Brattleboro, the Windham Orchestra will take us all on a romantic voyage to warm up our bleak winter nights. The Orchestra, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, will perform Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2.

Treasured local mezzo-soprano Mary Westbrook-Geha will sing Sir Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Op. 37. This orchestral song-cycle consists of five songs written in English by various poets. Sea Pictures takes us on a journey describing the human relationship with the sea, from tenderness and loss through calm safe-haven to tempestuous drama.

“Elgar's Sea Pictures is a complex expanse of contrasts, in poetry, emotion, dynamics, and in vocal and orchestral color,” says Westbrook-Geha. “Vocally, the piece is quite demanding, having been written for a contralto voice, yet expanding up into the dramatic mezzo-soprano range. I am so pleased to have been invited to perform it with Maestro Keelan and the Windham Orchestra, who together are finding all the subtleties in Elgar's beautiful orchestration, evoking the sounds of England and the sea.”

Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff created symphony No. 2, opus 27, during the Romantic Era of music composition. In this piece we are shown how to live in winter in Russia or Vermont: the scene appears to be set in darkness, cold and settled snow, a heavy, brooding state of mind prevails, and the main work of the symphony is to generate joy, passion and a glow of warmth against this backdrop.

As with so much of what Rachmaninoff created, there are glorious rising lines of music that create an overwhelming uplift, only to subside and rise even higher and more powerfully. Brilliance and warmth prevail.

Windham Orchestra: Romantic Voyage
Friday, January 27, 2012, 7:30 pm, Bellows Falls Opera House, Bellows Falls, VT
Sunday, January 29, 2012, 3 pm, Latchis Theater, Brattleboro, VT
Tickets, $15, $10 students and seniors, are available at the Brattleboro Music Center, Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, and Maple Leaf Music in Brattleboro; or by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523, or by visiting www.bmcvt.org. For additional information about the Windham Orchestra, visit www.windhamorchestra.org.