Long Beach Symphony presents The Firebird Suite

Edwin Outwater, the versatile young conductor of Ontario?s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, will take us back to yesteryear with a performance of Rossini?s William Tell Overture, perhaps better known as the theme from The Lone Ranger on TV and radio. This zesty program then segues into the 20th Century with British composer Gerald Finzi?s (1901-1956) Clarinet Concerto, a work of infectious lyricism performed by the Long Beach Symphony?s Principal Clarinetist, Gary Bovyer. Following intermission, Ravel?s Mother Goose Suite, which was originally composed as a piano duet for children and then transformed and expanded into a ballet in 1911, will take the audience through the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Little Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast, and others. The evening concludes with music from another ballet of the same vintage, Stravinsky?s Firebird Suite. It is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird that can be both a blessing and a curse to its owner. But that?s where the similarities between the Ravel and this work end. Described as scary, highly charged, wild and unpredictable, this finale will have audiences riveted.