Performance: Beethoven's Eroica Series: Symphonic Location: Warner Theatre

In November we will contrast two musical long-distance dedications. The first is a musical tribute to a beloved composer, the latter was created to the memory of a great historical figure. Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten is music that unfolds in steady waves of beautiful overlapping lines of instrumental chant. Its evocation of the spirit is as unmistakably reverential as it is touching and heart-felt. We are also pleased to introduce Erie to one of the world’s foremost harpists, Yolanda Kondonassis, who will grace the Warner Theatre stage with her technical mastery and imaginative artistry. She will perform a double-bill of Handel’s charming Concerto for Harp and a 20th-century French beauty in Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. We conclude the evening with Beethoven’s enthusiastic and brilliant Eroica Symphony. Originally created to honor the bold spirit of revolution embodied in Napoleon, Beethoven forcibly struck the dedicatee’s name from the title once he learned that the revolutionary had turned tyrant. Nevertheless, Beethoven’s ambitious new venture into the symphonic realm changed the orchestra forever, and the Eroica Symphony is a testament to the fervent spirit of its time.