Annual Beethoven Festival

The Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra launches its 2022-23 season with its 7^th Annual Beethoven Festival concert, featuring performances by individual members and ensembles from the orchestra. This unique and varied program celebrates the music of Beethoven and other renowned German and Austrian composers including Bach, Handel, Schubert and Kurt Weill, exploring their inspiration and influence across three centuries of music. The concert features works written and arranged for a diverse variety of instrumental groups including Mandolin and Harp, String Quartet, Woodwind Ensembles, Saxophone Quartet, Piano Quintet and Baritone and Piano, culminating in a grand finale for the combined ensemble featuring all of the Yonkers Philharmonic participating musicians.

Highlights of the program include five works by Beethoven, for varied ensembles, including his Quintet for Piano and Winds and Variations on a Theme “La ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The genius of Bach is heard in his Brandenburg Concerto no. 6, scored for 4 violas, cello, bass and keyboard. The emotional depth of the Romantic era is experienced in two masterpieces by Schubert  – the first movement of his magnificent String Quartet in D minor “Death and the Maiden” and his intensely dramatic duet for baritone and piano “Erlkönig”, based on a poem by Goethe. Kurt Weill’s music from The Three Penny Opera brings us to the Twentieth century in a selection arranged for saxophone quartet. The groups combine as a full ensemble to play Alla Hornpipe from Handel’s beloved Water Music Suite No. 2 in D major in a rousing finale.

The concert is free and all are welcome to join us for this uplifting afternoon of music.