We have had an amazing season this year for the Symphony of Southeast Texas. There have been many highlights with the music and the guest artists who have joined us on stage. We are going to conclude our season with a program that we are calling French Pairings.
All three pieces on the program are by French composers. We will open the program with the Bacchanale from the opera Samson and Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. The music is filled with exuberant dance celebrations and sinuous melodic lines infused with a touch of “oriental exoticism.” The perfect way to open our French Parings concert.
Next we are happy to be bringing back to the stage the Symphony of Southeast Texas Chorus to join us on the Gabriel Fauré Requiem. We have two fabulous soloists who will be joining us, both from our very own Beaumont community. Our featured soloists are Dalton Woody and Abigail Dueppen. Of the many settings of the Requiem, this is probably the most widely loved. In comparison with the large-scale masterpieces of Verdi, Brahms and Berlioz, Fauré’s setting seems gentle and unassuming, yet it is this very quality of understatement which contributes so eloquently to the work’s universal appeal.
We will close out our French Pairings concert and our season with ballet music from Daphnis and Chloé by Maurice Ravel. No better way to showcase our fabulous musicians than with this masterpiece. This is some of the Ravel’s most passionate music, widely regarded as some of his best, with extraordinarily lush harmonies typical of the impressionist movement in music. This is a great showcase to show what an amazing orchestra we have here in Southeast Texas.
