North Suburban Symphony performs Sunday

The North Suburban Symphony will present its second concert of the “Around the World” season at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest, featuring a triumvirate of German masters: Bach, Handel and Brahms.

Ron Arden has served as conductor and music director of the North Suburban Symphony, a community orchestra based in Lake Forest, since 2006. Also a competent violist in his own right, Arden will join other players of the North Suburban Symphony in J.S. Bach’s “Musical Offering,” a collection of canons and fugues, all based on a single musical theme.

Following Bach on the program will be a performance of G.F. Handel’s “Royal Fireworks Suite.” Originally a wind band suite, it was composed by Handel in 1749, under commission by George II of Great Britain, to celebrate the peace of Aix-la-Chappelle declared the previous year. The music was to provide a background for the royal fireworks.

Jumping ahead almost 150 years, Johannes Brahms will take center stage as the NSS performs three of Brahm’s set of 20 “Hungarian Dances”: numbers 5, 6, and 7.

Completed in 1869, the lively dance tunes are based mostly on traditional Hungarian folk song. Varying from about a minute to four minutes in length, Brahm’s “Hungarian Dances” are among his most popular works and also his most profitable.

Ticket prices are $18 for adults; $10 for seniors and students; free for kids younger than 12 with adult ticket purchase. Tickets are available at the door.

For details, visit www.northsuburbansymphony.org.