Beethoven’s Fifth opens the new gazebo!

TCO
Monday, June 27, 2011
by Michael Shapiro

The Chappaqua Orchestra under the direction of Music Director and Conductor Michael Shapiro will open the new gazebo in downtown Chappaqua with a celebratory concert on Wednesday, July 6, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. The concert will open with Beethoven’s “Consecration of the House (Gazebo)” Overture, then Beethoven’s mighty Fifth Symphony and conclude with that outdoor Victorian era favorite, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa.

For the first orchestral concert in the new gazebo, I picked these works for their special resonance.  The “Consecration of the House” Overture was written for the opening of a new theater in Vienna in 1822 and since has been traditionally played as the first work to introduce a new stage to the public.  It will be followed by Beethoven’s Fifth, which probably has the most famous beginning in all of music. 

It has also been said that the opening of the symphony represents Fate knocking on the door.  Without the relentless work of Mort Ross, a founding member of The Chappaqua Orchestra and longtime local resident, the original gazebo and now its beautiful new replacement would never have been built.  Indeed, the new gazebo has a plaque facing the new pocket park honoring Mr. Ross.

morty ross

Maestro Michael Shapiro is the music director and conductor of The Chappaqua Orchestra.

 


Comments(1):
We encourage civil, civic discourse. All comments are reviewed before publication to assure that this standard is met.

I assume it is really this year, not 2012?

Editor’s Note:  Good eye, Dru Welburn!  Yes, 2011!

By Dru Welburn on 06/27/2011 at 6:07 am


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