IRIS concert a heavenly endeavor

Jennifer Gasparian

Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, IRIS' next guest artist, will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. in "A Taste of Heaven" at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

Saturday night's IRIS concert programming takes an optimistic, New Year's view of the future.

Michael Stern, artistic director and principal conductor, says the program, with guest soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, will fill the Germantown Performing Arts Center with gorgeous musicality and transcendence.

The showpiece is Mahler's Symphony No. 4 that incorporates a child's vision of heaven. For all his grand undertakings, Mahler chose a somewhat simpler style in this symphony that Stern says was "heavily influenced by the Schubert aesthetic."

It's the first time IRIS has performed one of Mahler's large works, and Stern believed the work was ideally suited to IRIS.

"The piece is transcendent and touches the emotions," he says, "and by the time you get to the third movement, the child's view of heaven is innocent and naive charm, heart rending yet never simple."

Stern is equally enthusiastic about soprano Murphy, whose style and musical ability impressed Stern the first time he worked with her. "She is a miraculous, wonderful singer," he says. "She has insight and understands the quality and spiritual nature of that incredible final movement."

Murphy will also perform Mozart's aria "Ruhe Sanft From Zaide," and Copland's "Old American Songs" tribute to American folk classics, including the Shaker hymn, "Simple Gifts."

To expand the variety of programming and show off even more of Murphy's voice, Stern added the Copland songs. The traditional 19th-century songs are described as "nostalgic, energetic, sentimental, devotional and humorous."

To begin the concert, Stern will conduct Debussy's "Children's Corner," inspired by the composer's daughter who was born in 1904, which sets up the evening's theme of innocence and maturing.

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"A Taste of Heaven"

IRIS Orchestra with soprano Heidi Grant Murphy; 8 p.m., Saturday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, 1801 Exeter Rd. Tickets: $55. Call (901) 751-7500 or go to irisorchestra.com.

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