Concert will open with a humorous performance of ‘A Rat’s Tale’
Published in the December 10-23, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
The South Valley Symphony rehearses before their upcoming concert.
South Valley Symphony will give its audience a gift of traditions new and old to bring musical joy into the holiday season. Children who are accompanied by an adult and students with a valid ID can attend the concert for free.
The symphony’s winter concert at Gavilan Community College will feature a family-fun musical retelling of the classic fairytale The Pied Piper of Hamlin told from the point of view of a rat.
The concert will open with a performance of “A Rat’s Tale” composed by Bay Area musician Henry Mollicone who, dressed to resemble a rat, will do the comic narration as South Valley Symphony’s musicians perform.
Mollicone was commissioned by the El Camino Youth Symphony to compose the piece, and actor Charles Nelson Reilly did the original narration to accompany the entertaining piece of music when it was first performed by that Palo Alto-based group.
“I said to him, what about the Pied Piper from the point of view of the great grandson of one surviving rat,” Mollicone recalls. “What would be the story from the rat’s point of view? We both thought it was a great idea so we created the story, it’s just wild. The rat that’s narrating, it says, ‘We’re not going to have Robert Browning’s cheap tabloid account of this story. We’re going to tell the true story.’ It’s really from the point of view of the rats. It’ll be fun.”
While narrating, he promises funny bits such as fooling around with the orchestra musician and sniffing out a Swiss cheese sandwich among one of the performers, he said.
A South Valley Symphony violinist performs at a concert. Photo by Marty Cheek
Other pieces to be performed include Debussy’s Dances Sacred & Profane for Harp and Strings with a harp solo by Ruthanne Adams, the Mannheim Steamroller’s “Christmas Eve Sarajevo,” and symphony violinist singing holiday songs.
Symphony director and conductor Anthony Quartuccio said the concert will have a share of delightful surprises for the audience. One will be taking traditional Christmas tunes and classical music and putting them through a “fun-house mirror” distortion that will give them a new interpretation.
“It’s kind of a lighthearted way of playing Christmas carols,” he said. “For example, we’re taking Jingle Bells and putting it against the Ride of the Valarie by Wagner. And we’re changing keys on pieces and changes tonality on instruments to make light-hearted fun of traditional Christmas tunes.”
The harp concerto will also add to the holiday ambiance, Quartuccio said.
“In the spirit of the Christmas season, the harp is a very lush and gorgeous instrument, so we decided to feature it as a solo,” he said. “It’s creating sort of a wonderful, colorful mood. It’s really just for musical colors that comes out through this very virtuosic harp piece based on medieval dances that were written in an impressionistic style.”
One of the “old traditions” of the winter concert is the ever popular “Sleigh Ride” piece. And children will love Mollicone’s “A Rat’s Tale” because of its humor.
“It’s also amazingly imaginative and light. All ages will love it,” Quartuccio said. “I think ‘A Rat’s Tale” is a great piece for families because it’s fun and entertaining and there are a lot of laughs, and you get to bring your children to a symphony concert where everyone can get a good laugh.”
