The North Carolina Symphony, led by guest conductor Andrew Grams, will perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony on Friday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. in Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall. The performances will also feature two selections from César Franck’s Psyché, and “Six épigraphes antiques” and “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy.
With a unique combination of intensity, enthusiasm and technical clarity, American conductor Andrew Grams has steadily built a reputation for his dynamic concerts and long-term orchestra building. Mr. Grams has led orchestras throughout the United States including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. He served as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 2004-2007 where he worked under the guidance of Franz Welser-Möst, and has since returned for several engagements. Mr. Grams is in his third season as Music Director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.
Organist and North Carolina native David Jernigan has performed as a soloist in venues including St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey, London; the Cathedral of St. André, Bordeaux, Fr.; the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC; and the National Cathedral, Washington D.C. He has played many of the most challenging works for solo organ including Max Reger’s Chorale Fantasia on “Hallelujah! Gott zu loben,” Maurice Duruflé’s Suite for Organ, Marcel Dupré’s Trois Préludes et Fugues, Opus 7, and most recently, J.S. Bach’s longest and most complex work for organ, the complete Clavier-Übung III.
Mr. Jernigan is dedicated primarily to the field of sacred music and is currently the Organist and Choirmaster at Christ Church on Capitol Square in Raleigh, NC. Having founded professional and semi-professional choirs, he has conducted choral residencies at Westminster Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral, and Windsor Castle and has worked with some of the nation’s foremost interpreters of music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods and the Anglican Cathedral repertoire.
Speaking of the “Organ” Symphony, composer Camille Saint-Saëns said himself: "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again."
In program notes, scholar Dr. Richard E. Rodda writes, “The Paris in which Saint-Saëns grew up, studied and lived was enamored of the vacuous stage works of Meyerbeer, Offenbach and a host of lesser lights in which little attention was given to artistic merit, only to convention and entertainment….Saint-Saëns, with his love of Palestrina, Rameau, Beethoven, Liszt and, above all, Mozart, also determined not to be enticed into the Opéra Comique but to follow his calling toward a more noble art. To this end, he established with some like-minded colleagues the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871 to perform the serious concert works of French composers. The venture was a success, and it did much to give a renewed sense of artistic purpose to the best Gallic musicians. The “Organ” Symphony was produced to promote the ideals of the Société Nationale.”
North Carolina Symphony Associate Conductor David Glover will give a pre-concert talk on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall. On Saturday, Feb. 27, Catherine Brand of WUNC-FM will host a Meet the Artist session at 6:30 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall.
Tickets to the Raleigh performances on Friday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, Feb. 27, range from $18 to $66. Student tickets are $10. Concert tickets at all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time. Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.