‘The Planets’ to be explored in music
The upcoming Butler County Symphony Orchestra concert epitomizes the themes of this year’s season, the “Season of Stars,” not only for its subject matter, but for the musicians it is highlighting.
The Saturday, Nov. 7, concert, “The Planets,” is a performance of Gustav Holst’s work, which is inspired by astrology rather than astronomy, according to the Butler County Symphony Orchestra Association. The concert features 80 musicians, one of whom is the organization’s annual concerto competition winner, Maikol Pérez Gómez, and five high school students who will play alongside the principal musicians in their respective sections.
Ed DeSantis, executive director of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra Association, said he is excited for this concert because it is one of the symphony’s “pillars come to life.”
“We believe education is a pillar of our mission and we’re bringing it to our community,” DeSantis said. “The side-by-side honors as well as collegiate competition … we wanted this to be at the beginning of the season to try to showcase it for more folks.”
Gómez won the concerto competition this year, which had the largest number of entries ever, at 18 students, according to DeSantis. Part of the reason for the additional entries is because the association expanded the eligibility range to be 100 miles from Butler County. A Duquesne University student pursuing a Bachelor of Music in piano performance in the Mary Pappert School of Music, Gómez won the concerto competition performing “Piano Concerto” by Robert Schumann. The orchestra will perform the number with Gómez on Saturday.
The other benefits of winning the competition include a $1,000 scholarship, and a professional audio and video recording session, DeSantis said.
But Gómez’s chosen piece fits in with the theme of Saturday’s show, too, according to DeSantis. He said people may recognize one of the songs from the Disney film “Fantasia,” but Holst’s work also inspired the music for a famous film series.
“If they have never sat and listened to the Planets, they should be able to recognize these numbers if they watched ‘Star Wars,’” he said. “John Williams got a lot of inspiration from this symphony. Even if someone has never sat and listened, they’ll be able to pull all of those feelings from John Williams’ music.”
Moon Doh, music director and conductor of the symphony orchestra, said “The Planets” is a seven-movement piece that features about 45 minutes of music. But with 80 musicians on stage, the energy will be “exponentially greater” than many other pieces.
The concert also features a women’s orchestra in the last movement, which adds to the uniqueness of the show.
“The orchestration, how he uses the different instruments at different times, how he combines percussion with brass, woodwinds with strings, it’s immaculate,” Doh said of Holst. “The sheer size of the orchestra is menacing, anyone who comes to the orchestra will be blown away.”
The piece creates different atmospheres in each movement, which are all after a planet. Doh said he expects audiences to piece together how the name of each movement comes from the atmosphere created by the music, with Mars, the bringer of war, and Venus, bringer of peace, being examples of what people will hear.
The concert itself is a show of community, which, Doh said, is an important feature of the symphony orchestra.
“This really is a concert where we involve the entire community. It’s really a big opportunity to celebrate what the Butler County Symphony Orchestra focuses on,” he said. “It kind of matches our idea of stars because we’re working with the stars of the future.”
“The Planets” begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Butler Intermediate High School, 551 Fairground Hill Road in Butler Township. Tickets and more information about the show can be found on the symphony association’s website, butlersymphony.org.
