Monday Musicale with the Maestro – May 18, 2020 – Tribute to Nina Simone; the music of G.F. Handel

This week’s double features are from a treasured event at Durham’s Hayti Heritage Center.

“One of the most attractive places at which the Durham Symphony Orchestra performs is Durham’s Hayti Heritage Center, an arts center committed to promoting the African-American cultural experience. Working with Hayti’s Executive Director, Angela Lee, we have paid tribute to the legacies of African-American icons on each of our concerts there. Along with this theme, we have played a wide range of music from Bach to spirituals and contemporary classical music to Jazz. In addition, we have featured the reading of poetry and my extended comments about the works to be performed. Last year we saluted Ella Fitzgerald (who I conducted in two concerts in 1980) and Langston Hughes.

Our concert on Sunday, May 21, 2017 was dedicated to the artistry of legendary singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, who was born in Tryon, North Carolina. (More on her next week.) The program originated from my discovery of a revelatory bio-pic about her titled What Happened, Miss Simone?

In doing further research, I found out that in her teens she was a brilliant classical pianist who had studied at New York’s famed Julliard School of Music!  And despite her career as a soulful singer and pianist, her favorite music remained classical music. She was especially close to the music of Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and his contemporary, Georg Frederik Handel. To honor Miss Simone’s love for the classics, we played (among other works) music by Handel.

Handel’s oratorio Solomon was written in 1747, seven years after his most famous oratorio Messiah. An oratorio is a large-scale composition with Biblical text for solo singers, chorus, and orchestra.”

Enjoy & Be well!

William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra

Durham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro William Henry Curry Overture and Courante (Solomon) – G.F. Handel (A courante is an 18th century Dance)

Durham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro William Henry Curry Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Solomon) – G.F. Handel Featuring oboe soloists are Mary Greiner and Alex Leidtke. At the beginning of Act Three, the Queen pays a state visit to Solomon’s kingdom. This lively and famous processional heralds her entrance.