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day, Sept. 28, 2013, 7:30pm, California Theatre
562 W. 4th St., S     A galactic premiere that will lift your spirits into the cosmos!
Purchase your tickets now by calling the Symphony Office (909) 381-5388 or get season tickets Here.
FROM SAN BERNARDINO: The San Bernardino Symphony will present the first concert of its 2013-14 season with “Beyond Gravity,” a galactic premier that will lift your spirits into the cosmos.

On Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m., concert goers will experience Gustav Holst’s enduring and imaginative The Planets and space age selections from John Williams’ award-winning Star Wars and E.T. scores.

“We were guided by thematic material and the desire to combine two genres of music,” said Symphony Music Director and Conductor Frank Fetta, adding with levity, “Holst’s The Planets does not actually include reference to the Earth so we’re including our planet by doing Williams’ ET piece here on earth.”

The Planets, a seven-movement orchestral suite was written to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche. Colorful and imaginative, it was originally scored as a piano duet. But Holst’s later orchestral composition, which calls to mind influences of Russian Romantics such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, conjures out-of-this-world imagery through creative use of brass and woodwind instruments, and myriad forms of percussion. Audiences should even anticipate the ethereal sonorities of tubular bells, the harp, and ethereal strings and, as a special addition, the all female choir composed of CSUSB current vocal students and alumni will lend their voices to the Neptune movement.

American composer, conductor, and pianist John Williams’ Star Wars selections will draw from the original and prequel trilogies utilizing an eclectic variety of musical styles, many culled from the Late Romantic idiom of Richard Strauss and his contemporaries. With several obvious nods to Holst in the original scores, Williams incorporated more strains of modernist orchestral writing with each progressive score thought to involve director George Lucas’ desire to ground the otherwise strange and fantastic setting in well-known, audience-accessible music. Audiences will be transported to Tatooine and beyond through the simple and direct emotional appeal of this music.

Williams’ E.T. Adventures on Earth rounds out this singularly space age evening with selections from the sweeping, emotionally uplifting soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s most beloved family film. Utilizing The Grammy-winning score, full of both mischief and darkness, will evoke images of the life-changing adventures of Elliot, Gertie, and their extraterrestrial friend in what Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called: “essentially a spiritual autobiography.” Concert-goers may even hear a bit of Yoda’s Theme from The Empire Strikes Back in movements from The Magic of Halloween. The multitude of themes for E.T. merge to form a spectacular accompaniment for the 1982 film that called on all of us to turn on our heart lights… and promises to gift the Inland Empire with an undeniably rewarding concert experience.

Craig Safan, composer of The Last Starfighter, will be in attendance at the concert. (From PE.com)