MSO chamber concert resonates in historic setting
‘Woodworth Array’ brings winning classical charm to chapel at Tougaloo
Jackson, Mississippi — The Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s final chamber concert of the season, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, takes full advantage of the rich acoustics of Tougaloo College’s Woodworth Chapel with a captivating lineup of music masters – Mozart, Ravel and Beethoven.
The wood interior and vaulted ceiling of the 1901 chapel provide a warm and intimate environment, perfect for showcasing the skills and talents of MSO musicians and guest soloist, mezzo-soprano Viola Dacus.
“This is just beautiful music in a beautiful space,” said MSO Maestro Crafton Beck. “It’s a glorious place to play.” The Jackson landmark is part of the Tougaloo Historic District, placed on the National Register in 1998.
“Woodworth Array” opens with Mozart’s Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, a winsome charmer that helped popularize the clarinet, still a relatively new instrument in Mozart’s day. In Jackson, MSO Principal Clarinet Ken Graves shares the spotlight with Principal Viola Ausra Jasineviciute and pianist Stephen Sachs.
Dacus is featured in Ravel’s Trois Poèms de Stêphane Mallarmé, a series of art songs by the influential French poet. They include: a love song that draws on the scene of a garden in autumn; an ardent if futile petition to a pretty, porcelain shepherdess-princess; and the haunted imagery of a fragile, empty vessel. Ravel praised Mallarmé’s ability to make the French language poetical — a quality enhanced by his music.
The MSO String Quartet sparkles in Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 3, one of the composer’s gentlest, most lyrical creations. His earliest quartet is bright and lively, practically giddy at the end, and MSO violinists Shellie Kemp (concertmaster) and Vince Massimino, violist Jasineviciute and cellist Veronica Parrales make the most of the music.
The concert is sponsored by Lesly Gaynor Murray in memory of Stephen C. Edds. Tickets for the “Woodworth Array” chamber concert are $25 general admission and $5 for students kindergarten through college. Advance tickets may be purchased online at www.msorchestra.com and at the event beginning at 6:30 p.m.
What: Woodworth Array, chamber concert
Who: Mississippi Symphony Orchestra
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, 2023
Where: Tougaloo College Woodworth Chapel 500 W. County Line Road, Jackson