The Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra presents “Roman Holiday,” its final 2023-2024 M&T Bank Symphonic Series concert, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 6) at the Forum Theatre in downtown Binghamton. According to a Philharmonic press release, the concert will offer “a sonic panorama of the music, dance and history of Italy and Spain, a trip through both time and space with composers from the 19th to the 21st centuries.”
The performance will begin with Fandangos by Roberto Sierra, a native of Puerto Rico and currently a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca. In this work, he recast 18th-century Spanish dance forms. Also on the program is Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italian, a musical souvenir of the composer’s Italian holiday, and Ottorino Respighi’s grand meditation on landscape and history, The Pines of Rome.
A modern composer fascinated by the past, Respighi included six buccine in his orchestral score — ancient circular trumpets used as signaling devices by the Roman army. At Saturday’s performance, conducted by Daniel Hege, the buccine parts will be played by four additional trombones and two additional trumpets, with the players standing in the theater boxes overlooking the audience.
IF YOU GO: The Binghamton Philharmonic will present “Roman Holiday” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 6) at the Broome County Forum Theater, 236 Washington St., Binghamton. Tickets ranging from $25 to $65 are available at www.binghamtonphilharmonic.org. Kids 17 and under get in for free, courtesy of M&T Bank. Call the Philharmonic box office to request free kids’ tickets: 607-723-3931.
A pre-concert dinner is $35 (children: $15) at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel near The Forum.
“Music, Power, and Politics: The Case of Ottorino Respighi” – a pre-concert chat by Binghamton Philharmonic Director of Education and Community Engagement Julia Grella O’Connell — will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Forum recital hall.
