A personal note on today’s concert

It happened to me again. I created a concert program a year and a half ago, and by the time I get on stage to conduct it, it gets a new meaning. The concert program is “wiser than its creator” and it definitely means more than just the sum of its pieces. Honestly, it is chilling, mysterious and somewhat scary to perform today’s program on the week of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Kernis: Musica Celestis
Bernstein: Chichester Psalms
Beethoven: Symphony #9

As a musician and the Music Director of the Huntsville Symphony I will dedicate this concert to the memory of the victims of the Boston bombings. We will also remember all the heroes of the horrific events. We must remember that there were, there are so many people who helped when it was most needed. We do what we can as musicians. The program is built like a huge “crescendo”. We’ll remember the victims with the slow, celestial opening. Chichester Psalms is a piece of music to help us cope with our loss and to “sing out loud” everything what goes through your mind in the aftermath of the events. And finally Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is our long journey from horrors and doubts to consolation, to hope and to the joy that is being born from the compassionate acts of good people.

Seasons of Santa Barbara

It’s the season of The Seasons. Conducting the Santa Barbara Symphony for the first time this week. Program includes: Vivaldi 4 Seasons and Glazunov The Seasons
See details at the SBS website:
http://www.thesymphony.org/2012-2013-season/


Here are some other “seasons” classical music videos for your enjoyment
Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla

The American Four Seasons by Philip Glass

Piccolo Concerto and Rite of Spring in Costa Rica

Ready for my trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. My first ever trip to Central America and my debut with
Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional
http://www.osn.go.cr
Concerts on Friday and Sunday
Program:
Allen Torres: Tres Acuarelas (see the orchestra’s website about the composer)
Lowell Lieberman: Piccolo Concerto
See blog post by Crysania4 from 2010 with YouTube links to the piece
http://crysania4.livejournal.com

And of course it is still the 100th Birth-year of Good Old Rite of Spring. He has not aged a minute since his birth, I got to tell you that.

YOUTH Concerts, Love & LUST

Yes, I am getting better at coming up with catchy headlines. 🙂 Just finished the fourth show of our Youth/ Family Concert series. On the program: Mozart Magic Flute Overture, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto 1st Movement/ Elgar Cello Concerto 1st Movement (alternating, solos played by two concerto competition winners), Britten Young Persons’ Guide To The Orchestra [in honor of the Britten Anniversary]. It is always a lot of fun to play for 4th graders and the families on Saturday (this is a FREE concert every year). We had a great crowd especially considering that it is SNOWING today in Huntsville, AL.
This Sunday at 3PM we are doing our third and final concert of the Casual Classics Series at Randolph School. On the program: Debussy Music for the Songs of Bilitis [narrated by Ginny Kennedy from WLRH]
http://www.wlrh.org
and Luciano Berio Folksongs
Karen Bentel sings the solo. She also plays 2nd flute with the Huntsville Symphony.
Ginny Kennedy and myself will do a casual chat about the theme and the pieces. As usual there is no intermission, and there is a meet and great with snack afterwords.
Check out the program notes here:
http://www.hso.org

Mozart Symphony tailored to fit Mahler 4

First concert of “Voices and Symphonies” series with Hungarian Radio Symphony (MR Symphony)
http://www.mrze.hu
at Palace of the Arts, Budapest.
First half: Mahler Symphony #4
http://www.wikipedia.org
Second half: Mozart “Prague” Symphony with ‘Un moto di gioia’ concert aria as the “missing minuet”
http://www.wikipedia.org

I designed this program to tell the ‘story’ of the “Lied Symphonie”. Mahler’s Fourth is the last of his symphonies inspired by “The Boy’s Magic Horn” collection of poems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Knaben_Wunderhorn
I picked a three movement Mozart Symphony for the second (!) half of the program and inserted an aria about “the joyous movement of the heart” (written as an addition to Marriage of Figaro). It rhymes with the Mahler Symphony and “completes” the three movement classical symphony into a four movement piece. It is also a reminder that back in the days of Mozart the usual concert format was very different. They often mixed genres. A concert-aria could end up after one or two movements of a symphony paired with a concert rondo for piano and orchestra for example.

I am curious what the critics will have to say about this. 🙂