by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 6:00 PM
Concert: 6:30 PM
Artists:
Michael Christie, conductor and Music Director Emeritus
Michelle Cann, piano
“Fate, that fatal force” is the driving theme of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, with one of the most brilliant and virtuosic finales in all of music; Music Director Emeritus Michael Christie returns to conduct this mighty symphony. 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Michelle Cann performs Ravel’s glittering Piano Concerto in G as well as Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement; The Philadelphia Inquirer declared Cann’s recent performance “exquisite in both the Liszt-like technical sparkle and probing humanity of Price’s writing.”
Program:
Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major
Florence Price, Piano Concerto in One Movement
—
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 6:45 PM
Concert: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
In the first evening of a two-part preview performance, 2023 Artist-in-Residence Joshua Bell performs selections from Elements, an unparalleled work for violin and orchestra in five movements, each written by a different acclaimed composer. In this concert, Bell performs the first three movements of Elements: “Fire” (composed by Jake Heggie), “Air” (Jennifer Higdon); “Water” (Edgar Meyer); “Ether” (Jessie Montgomery); and “Earth” (Kevin Puts). The program closes with a beloved favorite by Debussy; the musical brushstrokes of La Mer create Impressionistic sketches of the sea.
(A co-commissioned project with five major orchestras, Elements will receive formal premieres around the world beginning in September 2023. Hear it at the Festival first!)
Program:
The Elements
Suite for Violin and Orchestra
“Fire” by Jake Heggie
“Ether” by Jessie Montgomery
“Water” by Edgar Meyer
(Commissioned by Joshua Bell)
—
Claude Debussy, La Mer
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 10:00 AM
Concert: 10:30 AM
Artists:
Kalena Bovell, conductor
Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, soprano
Janae Burris, narrator
What do you get when you mix a boy, a duck, a cat, a wolf — and an orchestra? You get Peter and the Wolf, Prokofiev’s beloved symphonic fairytale that uses the playful story of a wolf on the prowl to introduce young listeners to the instruments of the orchestra. The 2023 Festival Family Concert, conducted by Kalena Bovell and featuring vocals by Jennifer Bird-Arvidsson, also includes an upbeat suite from Bizet’s Carmen, Eric Whitacre’s musical setting of the children’s classic Goodnight Moon, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s festive overture celebrating his African culture, Danse Nègre.
Program:
Georges Bizet, Carmen Suite No. 1 for orchestra
Eric Whitacre, Goodnight Moon (2011)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, “Danse Nègre” from African Suite, Op. 35, No. 4
Sergei Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 6:00 PM
Concert: 6:30 PM
Artists:
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
In his first appearances as 2023 artist-in-residence, the one and only Joshua Bell performs Bruch’s Violin Concerto. The great 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim, to whom the composer dedicated this masterpiece, considered this concerto to be “the richest, most seductive” of all German violin concertos. Bruch’s Violin Concerto has become one of the most legendary works for the instrument and is an exquisite vehicle for Bell’s showmanship. The second half features Mussorgsky’s instantly recognizable Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of musical paintings inspired by the sketches of the composer’s close friend Viktor Hartmann. The program opens with Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Carlos Simon’s Motherboxx Connection, the first movement of his Tales: A Folklore Symphony for orchestra; in Simon’s words the motherboxx is “an all-knowing entity that is aware of the multi-faceted aspects of blackness.”
Program:
Carlos Simon, “Motherboxx Connection” from Tales: A Folklore Symphony for orchestra (2021)
Max Bruch, Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor
—
Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 7:00 PM
Concert: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Brentano String Quartet
The 2023 Robert Mann Chamber Series continues with the “wonderful, selfless music-making” (The Times, London) of the Brentano String Quartet, Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music. The program opens with Mozart’s intriguing “Hoffmeister” String Quartet, a chamber gem of character and complexity. Two touching memorial pieces by James MacMillan follow: his brief and delicate Memento and the miniature For Sonny, rife with pizzicato nursery rhymes and harmonies of shifting tones, composed to honor the memory of a friend’s grandson. It is fitting that Brentano ends their performance with one of the last and most profound pieces by Beethoven, since the Quartet takes its name from arts patron Antonie Brentano, believed to have been Beethoven’s mysterious “Immortal Beloved.”
Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499
James MacMillan, Memento for string quartet (1994)
James MacMillan, For Sonny for string quartet (2011)
—
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130
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