Chamber Orchestra to Present Free Concert of Classics

The sanctuary of La Cañada Presbyterian Church will resound with some of the world's most stirring and lyrical orchestral music this Sunday, April 29 at 4 p.m. when the church's chamber orchestra presents a free concert featuring the work of Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Copland and Gould.

The community is invited to hear the impressive work of an orchestra made up of 40 amateur, professional and semi-professional musicians drawn from the congregation and the local area. It is directed by church member Jack Lantz.

One of the highlights of the concert will be Mozart's Symphony No. 41, also known as the Jupiter symphony, and the last one Mozart wrote. "It's really the culmination of Mozart's compositions, and it's truly a great work," said Lantz, who has a degree in music composition from Yale University and conducts bands, orchestras and choruses as a hobby.

Lantz's program notes are always enlightening when the orchestra performs monthly in the church's Sunday morning worship services. Of the fourth movement of the Jupiter symphony, he noted that it "outdoes even Bach in its energetic five-part counterpoint first within the five string voices and then expanding to the full orchestra."

The program will do a little globe-trotting — to Germany for Beethoven's Overture "Consecration of the House," to Norway for a suite of music that Grieg wrote for the play "Sigurd Jorsalfare" and also his "Wedding at Troldhaugen," then home to America for Aaron Copland's "Variations on a Shaker Melody," from "Appalachian Spring," and Morton Gould's "American Salute."

The latter features variations of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." "It was a song written for Johnny to come marching home from the Civil War," Lantz said. "And maybe it's not so inappropriate today in light of what's going on in Iraq."

La Cañada Presbyterian Church is at 626 Foothill Blvd. For information, visit www.lacanadapc.org or phone 790-6708.