LB Symphony's new music director to lead performance Saturday

[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-1.38.33-PM.png” credit=”Courtesy LB Sympony” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Eckart Preu” captionposition=”right” revealfx=”off”] The Long Beach Symphony’s classical concert on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 8pm at the Terrace Theater of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., will culminate a week of activities for the symphony’s newly named music director designate, Eckart Preu.
Before he takes the helm officially in October, Preu has taken part in dozens of activities throughout Long Beach this week, including conducting four free concerts for students, meeting over 500 seniors, volunteers, patrons, and downtown residents, and leading the Long Beach Symphony in the concert Saturday.
That performance will showcase the orchestra with Saint-Seans’ Danse Macabre, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Debussy’s Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun, dubbed by Preu as “one of the most magical orchestral pieces ever,” and closing with Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
In the words of Preu, the Berlioz piece is “full of imaginative gestures: from the fumes of opium, to twirling dresses, to the falling guillotine!the work is not only playing mind games on the ‘artist’ whose life it portrays— it may be playing mind games with us as well.”
Doors will open to the public at 6:30pm with music in the lobby, and guests are encouraged to attend a free pre-concert talk with Preu at 7pm and a post-concert toast in his honor.
Tickets to the Long Beach Symphony’s Classical concerts start at $25 with student tickets available for $10. For more information, or to purchase tickets and subscriptions, visit the Symphony’s website at LongBeachSymphony.org or call (562) 436-3203 ext. 1.
Source: LB Symphony