Visit Vienna with NC Symphony Saturday

The NC Symphony will be returning to Salisbury Saturday Night, conducted by William Henry Curry.

William Henry Curry

Vienna stood as the seat of classical music for nearly two centuries. Music lovers in Salisbury can enjoy its breakthroughs and influence firsthand as Resident Conductor William Henry Curry leads the North Carolina Symphony in "Visiting Vienna" Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Keppel Auditorium, Catawba College.

Featuring celebrated and unique selections from three leading lights of Viennese music, the concert begins with Franz Schubert's Overture and Ballet Music to "Rosamunde," emphasizing the vigorous scoring and harmonic originality he used to guide the innovation of Mozart and Beethoven into the Romantic era. Also on the program is a performance of Schubert's towering, Mozart-influenced Symphony No. 5.

Johann Strauss Jr., born in 1825, three years before Schubert's death, quickly became Vienna's most famous composer of its favorite dance, the waltz. The Symphony delights its audiences with a rare performance of Strauss' "Morning Papers" waltz, along with the overture to his operatic masterpiece, "Die Fledermaus."

Finally, the Symphony connects Vienna's classical past to modern media through Erich Wolfgang Korngold's orchestral adventure "Straussiana." A child prodigy-turned-visionary Hollywood film score composer, Korngold's reputation is growing in part because he kept the Viennese symphonic tradition thriving in America while World War II raged in his native home. "Straussiana" revisits the Academy Award-winning composer's roots through three charming variations on little-known Strauss works.

The concert is sponsored by Jim and Gerry Hurley. Ticket information is available by calling 704-637-4314 or visiting the website www.salisburysymphony.org.

Ticket outlets are Belk (Salisbury Mall), Convention & Visitors Bureau, A Step In Time, Sidewalk Deli, Green Goat Gallery (Spencer), and Crescent Pharmacy (Rockwell).