Directed by conductor Heather Buchman, the Hamilton College Orchestra's fall concert Thursday, Dec. 11, celebrated the 100th anniversary of powered flight with the world premiere of a work commissioned for the orchestra, "Kill Devil Hill" by composer Lucio Petroccione. (The actual date of the Wright Brothers' first flight was Dec. 17, 1903.)
Mr. Petroccione writes, "'Kill Devil Hill' is a musical timeline from the moment the hangar doors open and the Wright Brothers push their first plane outside until today. I wanted to capture the beauty, genius and courage of the human spirit and the horrific reality of 9/11. There are the sounds of coming into the jet age (the machines) and New York City. The name 'Kill Devil Hill' comes from the place where the Wright Brothers began testing their first flying prototypes." The composer will be in attendance for the premiere of "Kill Devil Hill."
Violinist Vladimir Pritsker and cellist Florent Renard-Payen, both members of the Music Department faculty, performed with the HCO on the virtuosic Double Concerto for Violin and Cello by Johannes Brahms. The Double Concerto was Brahms' final composition for orchestra and, as Clara Schumann noted, "a work of reconciliation," mending a long and severe breach in the friendship between Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim, for whom the Double Concerto was written.
The program concluded with Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' powerful Symphony No. 2 in D Major, which will highlight the most recent musical accomplishments of the Hamilton College Orchestra.
